{"id":1034723,"date":"2026-08-31T10:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T10:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034723\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T10:16:16","slug":"why-imprisoned-fatah-leader-marwan-barghouti-leads-polls-for-palestine-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1034723\/","title":{"rendered":"Why imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti leads polls for Palestine president"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite spending 24 years behind bars, imprisoned senior Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti<\/a> continues to command significant support among Palestinians, largely because of the \u201cmyth\u201d surrounding him and what he has come to symbolize, Dr. Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at Tel Aviv University\u2019s Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern<\/a> and African Studies, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.<\/p>\n

Serving five life sentences for murder and membership in a terrorist organization, Barghouti has been absent from Palestinian society for nearly a quarter of a century. He has not witnessed firsthand how the Palestinian economy has been changed by technological advances, the COVID-19 pandemic, or the events that have reshaped Palestinian society since October 7.<\/p>\n

However, despite his long absence from public life, polls conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research have consistently shown Barghouti to be the leading choice among Palestinians for the next president.<\/p>\n

In its latest poll<\/a>, published earlier this month, the PCPSR found that Barghouti would receive 54% of the vote, putting him well ahead of Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, while current PA President Mahmoud Abbas would receive just 14%. In a poll conducted 10 months earlier, Barghouti was also the most popular choice for president, receiving 49% of the vote.<\/p>\n

Asked how it was possible that a man with limited communication with the Palestinian people could enjoy such popularity, Milshtein shared that Qassam Barghouti, the son of the imprisoned Fatah leader, once explained to him that it was Barghouti\u2019s absence that allowed his popularity to grow.<\/p>\n

\"PalestiniansPalestinians protest in support of senior Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti in the West Bank city of Nablus, August 20, 2025 (credit: NASSER ISHTAYEH\/FLASH90)People don’t know Marwan the person; they admire Barghouti, the myth<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me, \u2018Listen, people do not really know Marwan the person, but they admire Barghouti, the myth. He represents, for most Palestinians, mainly the young ones, all the symbols, dreams and aspirations they support. He is quite clean. He is not corrupt like other senior figures in the PA. He represents the prisoners. He represents the resistance, the Mukawama (resistance). He represents a lot of things that most Palestinians are affiliated with,\u201d he recounted.<\/p>\n

Milshtein suggested another reason for Barghouti\u2019s popularity is the poor perception of the alternatives. The Palestinian Authority has failed in its promises to weed out corruption, Abbas continues to hold onto the presidency despite his term expiring in 2009, and the Palestinian economy continues to struggle. State employees have been paid a fraction of their wages for a year, PA schools run part-time, and hospitals have struggled to operate at normal, full capacity in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir basic image is related to corruption and other negative phenomena. So, I even assess that if tomorrow there were elections in the Palestinian arena for the presidency, not the coming elections to the parliament, I\u2019m almost 100% sure that he would be the president,\u201d Milshtein continued, explaining that Qassem had once told him that it would hardly matter to Palestinians if their president were governing the West Bank from inside an Israeli prison cell.<\/p>\n

Governing from inside a prison cell would be a ‘headache’ for the PA, Israel<\/strong><\/p>\n

Such a possibility would be a \u201cheadache\u201d for both the Palestinian Authority and Israel if it ever materialized, he continued. Beyond \u201cthe fact that he doesn\u2019t really know what the Palestinian street looks like and what the basic changes have been regarding the economy, society, culture and, of course, politics,\u201d Israel would not be inclined to release a prisoner serving multiple life sentences who would be likely to incite another intifada.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Barghouti\u2019s support extends beyond Fatah. During the hostage-ceasefire negotiations in 2024 and 2025, reports indicated that Hamas pushed for his release as part of a potential deal. While Palestinian prisoners from multiple factions were released as part of the agreements, few were singled out and discussed as prominently as Barghouti.<\/p>\n

After nearly a quarter of a century in detention, Barghouti has had extensive interactions with Hamas operatives and leadership, Milshtein said, offering this as part of his explanation for Barghouti\u2019s cross-factional popularity. In 2006, he co-authored the National Conciliation Document of the Prisoners alongside officials from Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the PFLP. These interactions helped build a degree of support for Barghouti within Hamas\u2019s camp, Milshtein explained.<\/p>\n

A second, more calculated reason, Milshtein said, was that Barghouti could help Hamas project an image of national unity among Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\u201cHamas\u2019s basic assumption was that if Marwan Barghouti were released because of Hamas<\/a>, because of a military operation that Hamas promoted, maybe he would feel that he owes them,\u201d he offered. \u201cThese conditions could make the idea of reconciliation, and maybe Hamas\u2019s involvement in the Palestinian regime, easier.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite spending 24 years behind bars, imprisoned senior Fatah figure Marwan Barghouti continues to command significant support among…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1034724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[67678,4527,1815,99,87827,50,22945,310038],"class_list":["post-1034723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-fatah","tag-hamas","tag-interview","tag-israel","tag-marwan-barghouti","tag-news","tag-palestinian-authority","tag-palestinian-elections"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117189608709254129","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1034723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1034723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1034724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1034723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1034723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1034723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}