Islam Times - Marwan Barghouti: If Occupation Continues, There will be Intifada

Islam Times - Wednesday 26th December, The Jerusalem Post newspaper published yesterday, that Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti said in an interview with channel 10 from his prison cell, that if he were Palestinian Authority president, he wouldn't be able to promise that there would not be a third intifada, as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has done.

Channel 10 aired the interview - jointly conducted with Haaretz - on Wednesday night, marking the first Israeli interview of its kind after the ten years of prison time that the revered Palestinian figure has served.

Barghouti warned that if the occupation continued, there will be a third intifada, but it will be a popular non-violent uprising.

According to the same newspaper, Barghouti said that the conflict would strengthen Hamas and said that the rockets helped the Gaza movement, and "were a good thing." However, he added that he could not say that it was appropriate to use them in every situation, as Hamas did. Nevertheless, he asserted that the Israelis "only understand force."

He described Abbas as the most comfortable partner Israel could have, and said he had no choice but to go the United Nations General Assembly with the Palestinian statehood bid, otherwise "he would go home."

Barghouti recalled when Abbas had said that he would give up any claim to Safed, where he had lived as a child. Abbas said, "Palestine now for me is the '67 borders; with East Jerusalem as its capital...I believe the West Bank and Gaza is Palestine and the other parts are Israel."

Abbas' statements came during a channel 2 interview in March when he was asked if he would like to return to his birth town of Safed.

Barghouti stressed that he himself would not give up the claim to the right of return, which he called a sacred right of the Palestinians.

He also stated that Israel has proven it does not want peace. "When I'm president, and Israel agrees to a two-state solution based on the 1967 border with the capital of Palestine as east Jerusalem, I will ensure that Hamas does not carry out attacks," he said.