Israeli military censors prevented TV channel from broadcasting an interview with Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian leader who is serving multiple life terms in an Israeli jail. He was interviewed in jail for two hours late last month, Channel 10 reported on Wednesday night.

Barghouti, the former head of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah Tanzim fighters, consistently polls as the most popular Palestinian leader, said he would not promise that there will be no third Intifada — it will be “a popular uprising, not a violent one,” he said. “If the occupation continues, the uprising will come,” he promised. “The Arab Spring won’t pass [Israel] by.” Barghouti talked of a Palestine along the pre-1967 lines and alongside of Israel, but without relinquishing the demand for a right of return.  Nevertheless, he asserted that Israel “only understand force.”

“Free Marwan Barghouti” on the apartheid wall (Photo: Al Ittihad)

He also stated that Israel has proven it does not want peace. “When I’m president, and Israel agrees to a two-state solution based on the 1967 border with the capital of Palestine as east Jerusalem, I will ensure that Hamas does not carry out terror attack,” he said. “They have already agreed to this and we formulated an agreement here in prison,” he added.