Marwan Barghouti: Encyclopedia II - Marwan Barghouti - Split from Fatah

Marwan Barghouti - Split from Fatah

On December 14, 2005, Barghouti announced that he had formed a new political party, al-Mustaqbal ("The Future"), mainly composed of members of Fatah's "Young Guard", who have repeatedly expressed frustration with the entrenched corruption in the party. The list, which was presented to the Palestinian Authority's central elections committee on December 14 includes Mohammed Dahlan, Kadoura Fares, Samir Mashharawi and Jibril Rajoub. [4] [5]

The split followed Barghouti's earlier refusal of Mahmoud Abbas' offer to be second on the Fatah party's parliamentary list, behind Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. Barghouti actually topped the list[6], but this was not apparent till after the new party had been registered.

Reactions to the news have been split. Some have suggested that the move could be a positive step towards peace, as Barghouti's new party could help reform major problems in Palestinian government. Others have raised concern that it could wind up splitting the Fatah vote, inadvertently helping Hamas. Barghouti's supporters argue that al-Mustaqbal will split the votes of both parties, both from disenchanted Fatah members as well as moderate Hamas voters who do not agree with Hamas' political goals, but rather its social work and hard position on corruption. Some observors have also hypothesized that the formation of Mustaqbal is mostly a negotiating tactic to get members of the young guard into higher positions of power within Fatah and its electoral list. A variant theory, highly plausible, is that after the elections, Mustaqbal will either be partially re-incorporated into Fatah, or will function as part of a Parliamentary coalition with it in opposition to Hamas and other political rivals. [7] This theory was partially confirmed by a December 28 announcement that Fatah would submit a unified list for the January primaries consiting of both old guard and Mustaqbal members, with Barghouti receiving the top slot on the list. [8] However, Al-Mustaqbal spokesmen have denied that the party was created with ulterior motives, instead claiming that its decision to re-join Fatah was motivated out a desire to prevent Hamas from gaining electoral strength. Shortly after the announcement, Barghouti began campaigning for Fatah from his jail cell, apologizing to young Fatah members for the party's past mistakes, particularly relating to corruption. [9]

Some editorialists have drawn a parallel between Barghouti's split from Fatah and the upheaval in Israeli party politics resulting from Ariel Sharon's leaving the Likud to form Kadima.[10][11]

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Split from Fatah", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki