The third way?

The third way? Mel Frykberg reports from the Occupied Territories where she spoke to Dr Mustafa Barghouti, a politician who is drawing increasing levels of recognition and regard from jaded Palestinian voters, exclusively for The Middle East.

THE ISRAELIS HAVE long said that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity and, it seems, ever growing numbers of disgruntled Palestinians are beginning to agree with them.

Disillusioned with their dichotic leadership--split between Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority (PA) which controls the West Bank--many Palestinians have simply had enough of the prevailing situation.

A significant number have become so fed up with the infighting between the two main political streams of Palestinian politics that they have ceased following the news, reserving their scorn and sarcasm--which they heap abundantly and equitably--for the Islamic resistance organisation Hamas, and the western-funded and backed PA.

These pragmatists believe Hamas is too uncompromising and radical, while on the other hand, the PA is accused of bending over backwards to accommodate Israel and the US--to the extent of being accused of acting as Israel's proxy--at the expense of basic Palestinian rights. Both parties have been roundly criticised for their undemocratic self-interest and abuse of critics.

This, some say, is where Dr Mustafa Barghoutrs Palestinian National Initiative (PNI) or Al Mubadara in Arabic comes into the equation.

"Basically we established our party in response to the silent majority of Palestinians who are dissatisfied with both of the major political parties, Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank," Mustafa Barghouti told The Middle East during an interview in his office near the Muqata, or government headquarters, in Ramallah.

"Palestinians are demanding participation in nation-building, and in the struggle for an independent, viable, democratic and prosperous Palestinian state that guarantees security, justice and equality before the law for all Palestinians," said Barghouti.

Our platform strives for the establishment of a united national leadership which will counter ongoing efforts by Israel to fragment the Palestinian people both physically and politically, he added.

"We maintain that we as a people we have the right to resist the occupation but that this resistance should be non-violent and directed by a united leadership to ensure that it serves Palestinian national, not factional, interests and maintains the moral integrity of the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom and independence," Barghouti explained.

But while all of this sounds promising in theory, the secretary-general explained how the PNI envisions making its dream a reality on the ground.

"A number of steps have to be taken to consolidate democracy in our society and this involves wide-ranging steps of reform," he said. "We therefore believe that the building of our nation needs to focus on clear mandates, bylaws, transparency and accountability."

Barghouti said the PA has suffered from endemic corruption in the past, which still plagues it to the present day. This is exacerbated by nepotism, political patronage and clientalism.

Additionally, there is too much power concentrated in the hands of the government which is why there has to be a separation of powers between the executive, judiciary and legislative branches, he stated.

"And we desperately need to enforce the rule of law; ensuring a complete overhaul and defactionalisaton of our competing security forces towards the creation of a professional service that ensure the security of ordinary Palestinians," Barghouti told The Middle East.

One of the PNI's goals is to promote social justice for women in particular, the young, the elderly, the poor and people with disabilities. A cornerstone of its policy involves improving health, education and housing services and offering employment opportunities on the basis of merit and not political patronage.

Barghouti believes this needs to be done through responsible public spending and socio-economic development policies which benefit ordinary Palestinians.

"We have a lengthy history of working in close partnership with civil society organisations towards meeting the real needs of the Palestinian people," he stated.

In Barghouti's opinion, the inclusion of the Palestinian diaspora is imperative in any future peace deal as up to date they have been excluded from the decision-making process despite the fact that their fate is an integral part of any settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

This pertains particularly to Palestinian refugees languishing in the sordid refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt.

In regard to negotiations with Israel, the PNI insists that core issues, which include the settlements, borders, the removal of the apartheid Wall, East Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state, the right of return of the refugees and the settlement of water rights, must be addressed.

"The current PA is conceding too much to Israel while Israel continues to build settlements in the West Bank and to build the barrier, which diverts significantly from the internationally recognised Green Line and cuts through Palestinian land, separating farmers from their land and fields.

"We cannot accept this and neither can we return to an Oslo-type agreement with its endless 'interim' stage while Israel creates facts on the ground and uses this time to consolidate its grip on occupied land," said Barghouti.

"Any agreement that tries to improve conditions under Israeli military rule rather than ending it outright is tantamount to prolonging the occupation. Peace can only come through the ending of this occupation and the apartheid system," he added.

Barghouti fervently believes Israel's argument and the case it attempts to put before the world is weak. There are cracks appearing in its PR campaign, he insists, as evermore people around the globe become acquainted with the systematic breaking of peace agreement understandings and the continued abuse of Palestinian human rights by the Israeli military in particular.

He sees not only similarities between the former apartheid system of South Africa but also in the struggle black South Africans launched in a bid to isolate the regime and enlighten the world as to what was happening in their homeland.

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"It was decades before black South Africans were able to mount a cultural and economic boycott of their country which ultimately crippled the apartheid regime. Here too it is a slow struggle and will take time and commitment. But we have no choice--we can't just allow Israel to walk all over us and take away even our most minimum rights," opined Barghouti.

In order to rally international solidarity as a means to ending the occupation, since, as Barghouti says, Israel will not end it of its own volition, the PNI supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. It also calls for a genuine international peace conference between united Palestinians and Israel to address core issues for a just peace.

"We are working with peace movements and international justice organisations throughout the world in addition to working with the peace movements on the Israeli left," said Barghouti.

It remains to be seen whether the PNI can become a force to be reckoned with since at present the party, although the third strongest political force in Palestine, commands only 3% of popular Palestinian support.

However, according to recent polls Barghouti's personal popularity stands at 32%, equal to that of llamas prime minister, Ismael Haniyah, while Barghouti scores a whopping 52% when compared with PA leader PA, Mahmoud Abbas, who trails in with a measly 17%.

But, taking into consideration that many Palestinians refuse to vote and that those people might easily represent a source of future support, Barghouti could he quietly heading onward and upward, mounting the political ladder one deliberate and determined step at a time.

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The PNI was co-founded in June 2002 by Dr Haidar Abdel-Shaft--one of the chief Palestinian negotiators at the first Palestinian-Israeli peace talks in Madrid in 1991--Ibrahim Dakak, a number of Palestinian academics, intellectuals and politicians; and the movement's secretary-general Dr Mustafa Barghouti, a cousin of jailed Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades leader Marwan Barghouti.

The late Palestinian-American Edward Said, a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, and internationally renowned Middle East expert and intellectual was also one of PNI's founders.