BECAUSE HE'LL BE THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE NATION OF PALESTINE:

Complementing the extraordinary groundswell of calls for Barghouti's release, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced April 17 its desire for the Israeli authorities to release him, after a meeting between Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri and Fadwa Barghouti that same day. This came within the context of her trips to various countries to build up international support for calls to release her husband.

The fact that the Egyptian announcement that Cairo sought to see Barghouti released coincided with his wife's statement that he intended to run for the presidency perhaps indicates his candidacy has Egypt's blessing, given "[Barghouti's] ... wide-ranging popularity as well as his ability to convince Palestinian organizations to work with him," according to statements to Al-Monitor from a former official at the Egyptian Embassy in Ramallah.

Barghouti's role in Fatah has not been limited to political work, like most of the current crop of leaders such as Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), president of Fatah and head of the Palestinian Authority, and Saeb Erekat, a member of the Central Committee. His role extended to military operations against Israel during the years of the second intifada before he was arrested -- particularly 2000, 2001 and the beginning of 2002. He was one of the founders of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah's military wing. The brigades' military activity was suspended after the election of the Palestinian Authority in 2005, following Barghouti's imprisonment.

Perhaps his absence from the movement was one of the reasons that Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades lapsed into inactivity. Following his arrest in 2002, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published audio recordings of Barghouti's interrogations at the hands of the Shabak, Israel's security service. According to those recordings, Barghouti was one of the supporters of expanding the intifada's anti-occupation military activities beyond the Green Line -- in other words, beyond the territories that were occupied in 1967 and have yet to be recovered.

Dr. Yasir Tantawi, an expert in Palestinian affairs at the Al-Ahram Center for Political Studies, told Al-Monitor that occupied peoples generally tend to support leaders with a personal history of armed struggle, as is the case with Barghouti. All the more so as Fatah's armed activity receded in Barghouti's absence, and did so in a manner that ran contrary to the movement's dominant vision during Yasser Arafat's era. That vision viewed the struggle for the 1967 territories as necessary, even if it required the use of arms against Israeli forces and settlers.

Because of his popularity, the release of Barghouti has become something both rival Hamas and Fatah are competing to achieve, owing to the vast credit and accomplishment he could add to the stock of whichever party secured his release.

It should be noted that many Hamas leaders have stressed in statements to the press and televised interviews that Barghouti's release is a top priority. This includes Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas' political office, who said in a Nov. 4, 2015, interview that his movement was concerned with securing Barghouti's release.

A former official from the Egyptian Embassy in Ramallah who asked to remain anonymous told Al-Monitor, "The popularity of Barghouti because of his armed struggles and imprisonment made him a hero and a symbol for the Palestinian issue, and both Hamas and Fatah can't block his political programs, as happened with Yasser Arafat, Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz Al-Rantissi. He can convince the two organizations to unite under his presidency, because their refusal [to do so] may reduce their popularity compared with Barghouti's popularity."

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