Who is Barghouti? If you ask the Israelis he's a terrorist who deserves imprisonment.
As leader of the Fatah Party's Tanzim militia, Barghouti, 42, has become a symbol -- and coordinating force -- of the Palestinian intifada against Israel, which has claimed the lives of at least 469 Israeli soldiers and civilians since it began in September 2000.
The Palestinians consider him a political prisoner who should be freed.
“I am not a terrorist, but neither am I a pacifist. I am simply a regular guy from the Palestinian street advocating only what every other oppressed person has advocated -- the right to help myself in the absence of help from anywhere else.”
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Securing this deal if in fact it's occurred would be a coup. And it would lend weight to Barghouti's call to hold new elections as he considers Arafat's leadership a failure.