Mustafa Barghouti Garners Support Among West Bank Youth
Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti offers an alternative to the veteran Fatah and Hamas movements, preaching against corruption and for democracy and transparency.
It seems that the Arab Spring has skipped over the Palestinians. Those Arab countries, where Facebook and Twitter youths rose up against existing regimes and revealed new leaders in their midst, are still waiting to see whether West Bank and Gaza youths will succeed in producing revolutionary heroes — heroes such as Wael Ghonim, one of the leaders of the Tahrir protest, or Mohammed Abdel-Aziz, leader of the "Tamarod" movement that hurled the first stone in Egypt, a stone that turned into the tremendous avalanche that brought down the Muslim Brotherhood.
Although there are latent buds of a “Palestinian Tamarod” in the Gaza Strip, Gaza's youths are concerned about making waves, evidently with justification. The Palestine square in Gaza is not Tahrir Square, and the Egyptian army that protected Egyptian protesters is not Hamas’ military wing, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, that already used threats and violence to disperse youths attempting to protest.
By contrast, Palestinian youths of the West Bank have found a new, older, hero who has recently built up great power, inspiring many people to follow him. He is not young, nor is he a leader of students who emerged from a local university. He is an adult with a degree from the University of Stanford. He even ran in the elections for head of the Palestinian Authority, and failed. His name is Dr. Mustafa Barghouti.
When Barghouti ran against Palestinian Chairman Abu Mazen in January 2005 after former Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat’s death, almost no one noticed him. Who could constitute a political threat to representatives of the two movements, Fatah and Hamas, in the course of the second intifada, then in its last stages? Who even listened to a man who did not advocate a military struggle, but inscribed the popular uprising on his banner? Even without a political base, Barghouti succeeded in amassing 20% support or, as many of his opponents say, the 20% of anger and fury against Fatah and Abu Mazen. Even then, almost a decade ago, Barghouti offered himself as an alternative to what many viewed as the corrupt regime of Arafat and his political heirs.
