Bashir Barghouti; Palestinian Leader Advocated Coexistence With Israel

Bashir Barghouti, 69, Palestinian Cabinet minister and leader of the Palestinian Communist movement. Although Barghouti’s party never had wide representation, he was an influential ideologue who advocated establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel at a time when other Palestinians were calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. Born in 1931 near Ramallah, Barghouti was active, with Yasser Arafat before he became leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in the Palestinian students union at American University in Cairo. After graduating in 1956 with a degree in political science and economics, Barghouti returned to the West Bank, which was then ruled by King Hussein of Jordan. Barghouti became leader of the Palestinian Communist Party and spent eight years in Jordanian prisons for his outspoken advocacy of Palestinian statehood. In 1967, after Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Barghouti was a pioneer in calling for what was then a daring concept--a Palestinian state alongside Israel, not in place of Israel. Barghouti, who edited the Al-Fajar and Al-Taliya newspapers, preferred ideological debate to violence but did support armed struggle against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. An Israeli military court convicted him of hostile activity and he spent a year in jail and was restricted to the city of Ramallah for more than 10 years. On Saturday in Ramallah, West Bank, three years after a stroke.