BARGHOUTI TIME:

Young Palestinians, after rule of Arafat, hope for rule of law: While Arafat was seen as the champion of Palestinian nationalism, he also came to represent corruption. (Ilene R. Prusher, 11/16/04, CS Monitor)

"After Arafat, we are free. We can impose on the next Palestinian leader what we want, rather than having it imposed on us," says Sattam Mubarak, a political science student at Bir Zeit University, on this city's outskirts. The man in his early 20s looks much like his collegiate counterparts in the West - and appears to think much like them. "We know that Israelis have internal freedom in their society, to move around as they wish and say what they like, and we want those freedoms, too."

But what many of the younger leaders haven't done yet is latch onto a new leader to succeed Arafat.Many Palestinian officials in Fatah have been lukewarm in their embrace of Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, as the next leader, which Mr. Asfour says is due to their interest in the process. Elections have been set for January 9.

"For us, the most important thing is to get the young generation to respect the process," Asfour says. "We want to see [the new leader] exercise his authority through constitution law and not through personal power."

Asfour, a locally influential figure in Fatah, is one of many young leaders who are unlikely to attract the kind of following commanded by Marwan Barghouti, whom young Palestinians cite as their top choice as a future president. Barghouti is in an Israeli prison, convicted of three counts of murder in a trial that Palestinians said was political rather than criminal.

Israel's interior minister, Avraham Poraz, has raised a storm over the issue by suggesting at a cabinet meeting that Barghouti could be released "under certain circumstances." What those circumstances might be is unclear. Barghouti, in his early 40s, does not look likely to emerge from prison as a Nelson Mandela-style figure. But others who are from the same generation of early '90s Palestinian activism are beginning to emerge as a more vocal and assertive cadre.

"Mostly, people are looking forward to seeing a society built on the rule of law," says Dallal Salameh, a young woman from Nablus who is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. "People are thirsty for it."

That sentiment became all the more palpable over the weekend when Abbas narrowly escaped a gunfight that erupted in Gaza late Sunday outside an official mourning tent for Arafat's death. Palestinian officials denied initial reports that it was an assassination attempt. Abbas blamed the shooting on "previous chaos" in Gaza, referring to intraparty disputes that erupted this past summer.

At that time, militant offshoots of Fatah had grown frustrated with corruption and nepotism in Arafat's regime. Now, it is unclear whether Abbas will be seen as someone who offers a substantial change after Arafat, or whether he will represent more of the same. Some Palestinians lump Abbas in with the elite clique of "outsiders" whom Arafat brought from Tunisia and other countries.

Israeli prison gave him credibility--now it's time to let him out.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 15, 2004 7:36 PM