海角大神

View from a barber shop where Saddam, Arafat, and Marwan Barghouti look on

February 18, 2009

View from a Barber Shop: While in the West Bank city of Ramallah Wednesday, I passed a barber shop downstairs from the headquarters of the campaign to free Palestinian Marwan Barghouti, who鈥檚 in an Israeli prison.

On the walls were pictures of Saddam Hussein, deceased PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and Mr. Barghouti. Barber Aloush Juweibri said that they were leaders of the Arab and Islamic world. Barghouti was among them, he said, 鈥渂ecause he鈥檚 a man of the street, one of the simple people, like us.鈥

鈥淚 hope he will reunite the Palestinians,鈥 he said.聽 But can鈥檛 any of the current leaders do that? 鈥淭oo difficult a question to answer,鈥澛 he said before going back to buzzcutting the back of a customer鈥檚 head.

For more about Barghouti, who may be released as part of a potential truce deal, read today's story.