Jailed Palestinian Barghouti Calls For Full Resistance Against Israel

Imprisoned political and military leader Marwan Barghouti called on fellow Palestinians to launch another wave of resistance against Israel on Tuesday.

Stop marketing the illusion that there is a possibility of ending the occupation, achieving a state through negotiations, Barghouti, a leader of the first and second intifadas, said in a message from his Israeli prison cell. The launch of large-scale popular resistance at this stage serves the cause of our people.

The Fatah leader also called on the Palestinian Authority to end all forms of coordination, security and economic, with the occupation until the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is halted, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Barghouti -- currently serving five life sentences for five murders and an additional 40 years for attempted murder -- is still an immensely popular and influential figure among Palestinians. His statement, written on the tenth anniversary of his jailing, was read in front of a crowd of supporters in Ramallah on Tuesday.

The public statement angered Israelis, who say it was a rallying call for a third war between Israel and Palestine.

Hila Cohen, an attorney with the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, said Barghouti violated Israeli law and should be charged with incitement, sedition, preaching on behalf of an illegal organization, encouraging terror and making statements that endanger Israel's national security, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Despite his comments, Barghouti says he is not opposed to future peace talks, but insists in his letter that they can only happen if Israel returns to the pre-1967 borders, Al Arabiya reported. As a political activist, Barghouti supported the Oslo peace accords but he became disillusioned with the process and formed Tanzim, Fatah's militia group, and his actions during the second intifada landed him in an Israeli prison.

“The job of the Palestinian security services is to provide security and protection to Palestinian citizens, not to protect the occupation,” Barghouti said in his address.

“We must affirm the absolute right of our people to resist occupation in all ways, and in the way appropriate to the situation -- and at this stage, popular resistance serves our people.