Will new Fatah leaders' fluency in Hebrew make a difference?
The Palestinian leaders who were elected for Fatah's Central Committee speak Hebrew fluently, which some analysts say will help break the language barrier during talks with Israelis.
By spending years in Israeli jails, the top elected candidates in Fatah’s seventh congress speak fluent Hebrew. Both imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti and head of the Palestinian Football Association and former prisoner Jibril Rajoub can read, write and speak the language most Israelis understand.
According to the final election results for Fatah's Central Committee, Barghouti received 936 votes, while Rajoub came in second with 838 votes. Mahmoud Abbas was re-elected on the first day of the congress Nov. 29 by acclamation — so he was not on the ballot. As head of Fatah, Abbas also gets to appoint four additional members to the Central Committee, which is the most powerful body in the movement.
Being articulate in Hebrew gives Barghouti and Rajoub extra advantages, especially when it comes to addressing the Israeli public. Television news producers, especially when preparing for a live news program, normally favor Hebrew speakers for guests because of the difficulty of live translation.
Smadar Perry, a senior editor for Middle East Affairs for Yediot Ahronot, the leading daily newspaper in Israel, told Al-Monitor that Rajoub is well-known to Israelis because of his knowledge of Hebrew. “Rajoub is very well-known here. I remember Jibril translated Menachem Begin's book while he was in prison.” Rajoub spent 19 years in Israeli prisons before being released in the 1985 prisoner exchange deal.
