One of the leaders of the Palestinian people has been incarcerated for approximately five years now in Israel. The time has come to release him. For years, Marwan Barghouti has tried to persuade Israelis to end the occupation through negotiation. He has gone from one Israeli party headquarters to the next, meeting with politicians across the political spectrum. He tried to persuade them in order to preempt the next confrontation. Barghouti failed, the second intifada broke out, and he himself turned to the path of violent struggle. During his years in prison, Barghouti has acted to restrain the armed struggle and bolster his people's moderate leadership, using envoys to achieve this goal. Modern history – including Israel's – has known national leaders who turned to violence and were jailed for years, until they were released to become political leaders who marched their peoples toward independence peacefully. Nelson Mandela is one such example.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/873575.html