Dear Donald Trump, here’s how you can win that Nobel peace prize | Mehdi Hasan

Dear Donald Trump,

You still want that Nobel Peace Prize, don’t you? You believe yourself deserve that, isn’t it? Even if you send the world’s largest warship to Venezuela, promise to simply “kill the people who bring drugs into our country…they will be as good as dead,” and threaten new National Guard invasions of Democratic-run cities here in the United States.

I suspect you are not supporting your cause for a Nobel at the moment. But I have a suggestion to make to you. The one that could guarantee you the sacred prize of peace you so obviously crave in 2026.

It’s very simple: get Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, to release Marwan Barghouti, 66, from prison in Israel.

You remember Barghouti, don’t you? You told Time magazine earlier this month that you were “literally confronted” with his case “about 15 minutes before” they called you, that it was the “question of the day” and that you would “make a decision” soon.

You also told Time that the Palestinians “don’t have a leader right now, at least a visible leader…because every single one of those leaders has been shot.”

For once, we agree! But Mr. President, I hope you understand that Barghouti East this leader. Described by the New York Times in the 1990s as one of the “young, charismatic and energetic” members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, he today enjoys support across the Palestinian political spectrum, from Fatah to Hamas, which has repeatedly tried (and failed) to have him included in their prisoner exchange deals with Israel. He is, by far, the most popular Palestinian leader in the world. Opinion polls – and I know you are an avid student of polls – have always found that an imprisoned Barghouti beat all his rivals in hypothetical presidential contests; in June 2024, he even defeated Ismail Haniyeh, then leader of Hamas, in a head-to-head match with a landslide victory. Reminder: Israel assassinated Haniyeh, Hamas’s chief negotiator, in Tehran the following month.

Do you want a unifying Palestinian leader with the stature and credibility to negotiate a real peace deal with Israel across all of historic Palestine, not just a ceasefire in Gaza? Barghouti is your man. In 2002, before his imprisonment, he wrote in the Washington Post that he “recognized Israel in 78% of historic Palestine”, that he was strongly opposed to the “targeting of civilians inside Israel”, and that he did not seek to “destroy Israel” and wanted “peaceful coexistence between the equal and independent countries of Israel and Palestine”.

Isn’t that the kind of Palestinian leader you and the US government could support? Isn’t this the kind of Palestinian partner that Israel has long claimed to want?

Of course, the Israeli government will tell you that Barghouti cannot be released because he is a terrorist; because he is serving five cumulative life sentences for the murders of five Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada. Don’t listen to them. An international observer sent to his trial in Israel in 2004, by the Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, concluded in his official report: “The numerous violations of international law cited in this report make it impossible to conclude that Mr. Barghouti received a fair trial.” »

In fact, according to the report, only about one in five of the 100 witnesses called to testify against Barghouti at his trial were able to testify directly about his alleged role in the attacks — and none of them even accused him of being involved.

Mr President, he was not a fair trial – and I know how personally you feel about people not getting a fair trial. You have pardoned and released hundreds of prisoners here in the United States since January who you believe were wrongly convicted and unjustly imprisoned. I don’t agree with you on these pardons and commutations, but why not also push for Barghouti’s release?

The “Palestinian Mandela,” as he is now known, could be the key to the lasting peace in the Middle East that you say you want to achieve. You don’t believe me? Listen to Ron Lauder, pro-Israel president of the World Jewish Congress and one of the your major donors, who offered to travel to Sharm el-Sheikh earlier this month to try to persuade the Israeli government to include Barghouti’s release in the Gaza ceasefire agreement. His attempt was unfortunately rejected by Netanyahu. “A two-state solution is only possible if you have a good leader and Marwan Barghouti will be the right leader for that,” Lauder told Time.

Also listen to Ami Ayalon, former head of the Shin Bet, the Israeli equivalent of the FBI. Barghouti is “the only leader capable of leading the Palestinians towards a state alongside Israel,” Ayalon told the Guardian in January 2024. “Firstly because he believes in the concept of two states, and secondly because he gained his legitimacy by sitting in our prisons. »

Listen to the Economist magazine, which calls him “the world’s most important prisoner” and “the only Palestinian who could help end the conflict.”

Imagine the headlines you would make, Mr. President, if you secured the release of “the world’s most important prisoner.” Imagine crowds across the Middle East joyfully chanting your name in tens, if not hundreds of thousands, if his release would actually “help end the conflict.” They might even start naming their sons “Donald” in honor of your success. You would have Really like that, isn’t it?

I want to be very honest and direct with you, Mr. President. Over the past decade, I have been one of your fiercest critics. I remain skeptical about the Gaza ceasefire agreement that you oversaw the signing of in Egypt. I also remain troubled by your constant use of the word “Palestinian” as a pejorative, as an insult. However, if you persuade (pressure?) your friend Bibi for freeing Barghouti from prison, even I will have to congratulate you.

You suggested to Time you would “make a decision” about it in the near future. Time is not on the side of the 66-year-old Palestinian leader. His family says he was beaten by Israeli prison guards last month while being transferred from one prison to another. In August, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released a video showing him berating and threatening Barghouti in his prison cell.

If, God forbid, Barghouti joins the more than 70 Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023, then the prospects of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question on your watch would fade. It will be the same for this Nobel Prize.

Pick up the phone, Mr. President. Tell Bibi to release Barghouti. So maybe get ready to get that call from Norway.