The BBC and Al Jazeerah reported this afternoon that Israel arrested Palestinian presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouti on a campaign stop in East Jerusalem. Barghouti is running second to Mahmoud Abbas in the polls.
As I have noted previously, Barghouti is a pacifist. He is associated with the Palestinian National Initiative, a third party distinct from Fath and Hamas. Barghouti is a physician and an advocate of non-violent resistance to the occupation. He is well respected in Israel and in the territories. He has no ties to militants and has never been involved in illegal activity of any sort. He is a very distant cousin of jailed activist Marwan Barghouti.
Mustafa Barghouti was also beaten up at a checkpoint in early December. The reason given by the Jerusalem police for today’s arrest was that “he has the right to transit through Jerusalem but not be in Jerusalem itself”. That right has been reserved rather arbitrarily for Israel’s favored candidate, Mahmound Abbas.
Since East Jerusalem can vote in the Palestinian election, all the candidates should be allowed to campaign there. Harassing the candidates interferes with the democratic process that Israel claims to support in the Palestinian territories. It also undermines Israel’s own image as a western-style democracy. I don’t know about you, but leaders who subject their opponents to arrest, detention and beating make me think more of Stalin than Jefferson.
Maybe we need an international conference to help strengthen Israel’s democratic institutions.
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