[[link removed]]

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI ON ISRAEL’S “DEFEAT” IN GAZA, SAUDI
NORMALIZATION, AND THE WAR ON THE WEST BANK  
[[link removed]]


 

Jeremy Scahill, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Mustafa Barghouti
January 24, 2025
Drop Site News
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ The Palestinian political leader talks to Drop Site on the eve of
another exchange of captives _

Mustafa Barghouti in Barcelona before giving a statement on the
recognition of the State of Palestine by Spain. May 28, 2024., Photo
By David Zorrakino/Europa Press via Getty Images

 

Thousands of Palestinians are preparing to return to northern Gaza
from the south this weekend for the first time in months. Under the
terms of the “ceasefire” agreement that went into effect on
Sunday, Palestinians will be allowed to travel north on foot via a
coastal road where Israeli troops are expected to withdraw.
Palestinians will also be able to return by vehicle or donkey cart via
another route, Salah al-Din road, but will be subject to inspection by
private security contractors, including U.S. security firms.

Throughout the war, the Israeli military severed the Gaza Strip along
what it called the Netzarim corridor, a seven kilometer-wide military
zone running east to west which the Israeli military forcibly
evacuated and demolished before setting up their own bases.

“The issue of people returning from the south to the north, is the
most vital issue here, because it defeats the purpose of the Israeli
aggression in Gaza,” Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the
Palestinian National Initiative and a prominent politician, told Drop
Site News in a wide-ranging interview. Barghouti—who is a former
presidential candidate and was elected to parliament in 2006—took
part in talks with leading Palestinian political parties, including
Hamas, in Doha recently. “The whole aggression on Gaza, this whole
15 months was about one thing—the ethnic cleansing of the
Palestinian population of Gaza. Netanyahu did not hide intentions; he
all the time spoke about transferring Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
by force, by killing them, by bombardment, to go to Egypt, to Sinai,
and he failed and the people showed great heroism in staying steadfast
on their land.”

“Netanyahu practically destroyed four cities in the north
completely—he destroyed Jabaliya, Jabaliya camp, Beit Lahia and Beit
Hanoun—but the resistance did not disappear, and people were
resisting and fighting back after 15 months of destruction,”
Barghouti said. “So now, [Netanyahu] is forced to allow them to get
back if he wants to get his captives.” The return of forcibly
displaced Palestinians to the north of Gaza, which Israel sought to
entirely depopulate, “will be the ultimate defeat of the Israeli
plans, because it means that the whole goal of ethnic cleansing did
not materialize.”

The confirmed death toll from Israel’s 15-month genocidal assault is
over 47,000 people and, despite the recent halt in Israel’s
bombardment, continues to climb every day as Palestinians dig out the
bodies and remains of their loved ones from under the rubble.

Soon after the ceasefire went into effect, Israel launched
a large-scale military campaign
[[link removed]] in
the West Bank it dubbed Operation Iron Wall. Israeli ministers and
media reports have suggested the military campaign is part of a deal
Netanyahu made with his cabinet ahead of the ceasefire in Gaza. On
Tuesday, Israeli tanks and troops stormed Jenin and the Jenin refugee
camp backed by airstrikes, drones and Apache helicopters. At least 14
people have been killed and dozens wounded across Jenin. Israeli
forces are burning and destroying Palestinians homes, conducting mass
arrests and displacing large swathes of the Jenin refugee camp where
some 2,000 families have been forced from their homes. Across the West
Bank, Israeli soldiers have raided several cities and towns, closed
down checkpoints and sealed the entrances to major cities while
Israeli settlers have gone on a rampage of violence, attacking
residents and torching Palestinians homes and vehicles.

“What you see in the West Bank is an escalation of what used to
happen anyhow, but now it's a very serious escalation. It's like a
war, actually, that is being conducted against the Palestinian people
in the West Bank,” Barghouti said. “It's a very dangerous
situation, unprecedented since 2002 when the Israeli army reinvaded
all of the cities and the villages of the West Bank.”

In Washington, President Trump held his first foreign leader call
since his election with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on
Thursday. Bin Salman told Trump Saudi Arabia intends to increase its
investment and trade with the United States by at least $600 billion
over the next four years, according to the official Saudi Press
Agency. A key priority in the Middle East for the Trump administration
is to persuade Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords and normalize
relations with Israel. If the Saudis reach an agreement with Israel,
many analysts in the region believe, other Muslim nations, including
Indonesia, would follow suit. Saudi diplomats have maintained they
will not normalize relations with Israel unless it includes a clear
path to Palestinian statehood.

“Normalization was used as an instrument to enforce a solution on
Palestinians that does not satisfy our needs or our future, and it was
used as an instrument to liquidate completely the Palestinian
issue,” said Barghouti, referring to the deals made during Trump’s
first term in power.

Trump nonetheless struck an optimistic note on the prospects of the
Saudis moving forward with normalization, telling reporters on Monday:
“I don’t think you have to push them. I think it’s going to
happen, but maybe not quite yet. But they’ll end up in the accords,
the Abraham Accords.”

Barghouti said that if the Saudis do normalize relations with Israel
and abandon the issue of Palestinian statehood as a condition, it will
not alter the fight for national liberation and self determination.
“Let me tell you something as a Palestinian who has followed this
situation for so many years and who has witnessed the decline of the
support of the Arab and Muslim countries to the Palestinian cause, and
who has seen a terrible lack of support during the attack on Gaza and
the terrible position of many, many countries in the international
community, and still we didn't break,” Barghouti said. “I tell you
frankly, if all Arab countries normalize with Israel, this will not
stop the Palestinian struggle. We will not stop and we will continue
because honestly, speaking, there is nothing much to lose, and we have
to survive through our struggle.”

“I don't see the Palestinian issue anymore as a pure Arab or Islamic
issue,” he continued, “it's an issue of humanity. It's an issue of
all the forces in the world that are supporting the rights of people
to be free, as Nelson Mandela said once—the Palestinian cause has
become the number one cause of liberty, or freedom worldwide. And I
think we should look at it in this way. We don't want normalization,
we'll struggle against it until we get our freedom. But if it happens,
it will not stop our struggle.”

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI is a Palestinian physician, activist, and politician
who serves as General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative
(PNI), also known as al-Mubadara.

He has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2006
and is also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
Central Council.

In 2007 Barghouti was Minister of Information in the Palestinian unity
government. He is an advocate of the use of non-violence and civil
disobedience to confront Israel's illegal occupation of the West Bank,
Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

JEREMY SCAHILL is a journalist at Drop Site News and author of the
books Blackwater and Dirty Wars. He has reported from Iraq,
Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Somalie and the former Yugoslavia.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS is a journalist and editor at Drop Site News.

_Independent news on politics and war. Founded by Ryan Grim, Jeremy
Scahill, and veterans of The Intercept._

Join DROP SITE now [[link removed]]

Investigative journalism lives on.

Gaza is under siege. Ukraine is starting to use U.S. weapons inside of
Russia. India is assassinating its leader’s political enemies around
the world. The U.S. election has left the American people to choose
between Donald Trump, who uses the term Palestinian as a slur, and
Kamala Harris, who has done little to separate herself from the
genocidal policy of the administration in which she serves.

Free speech is under unprecedented assault from corporate and
government forces. Far right movements are surging in Europe and
beyond. A militant new labor movement is on the march here in the
United States, but a corporate backlash is brewing.

At a time when the world desperately needs hard-hitting journalism,
establishment and corporate media outlets are failing the public and
democracy itself. That’s why Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Grim
started DROP SITE, A NON-ALIGNED, INVESTIGATIVE NEWS
ORGANIZATION dedicated to exposing the crimes of the powerful —
particularly in overt and secret conflicts where the U.S. government
is playing a key role.

Drop Site is not simply another non-partisan news organization. It is
completely independent journalism dedicated to principles of accuracy
and accountability. We are never afraid to take a stand for truth,
regardless of the partisan consequences or the risk of political or
personal unpopularity.

Drop Site is reader-supported. Consider becoming a free or paid
subscriber. [[link removed]]

Investigative journalism is expensive. Even if we were willing to take
corporate ads – which we’re not – digital ad revenue alone
can’t sustain the slow boring of investigative work. It can only be
supported by people who insist that it exist. 

Our work will always remain free to the public, but we have certain
features you can only access as a subscriber, like AMAs and
invitations to virtual and in-person discussions with our journalists
and newsmakers. 

We also LIMIT THE ABILITY TO COMMENT TO PAID SUBSCRIBERS AND DONORS
OF ANY AMOUNT, primarily as a way to keep trolls out of the commenting
community. If you can’t afford to donate but really want to be able
to comment, and promise not to be a troll,
email [email protected] for a special dispensation. (Please
don’t make us regret it. We don’t want to have to spend our time
moderating flame wars, but we do want to create a space where people
can debate the issues raised by our reporting.)

Even if you don’t end up donating or becoming a paying subscriber,
your act of joining this list goes a long way to support independent
journalism, giving us the reach we need for our work to have impact.

* Palestine
[[link removed]]
* Israel
[[link removed]]
* Gaza
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]