Why do liberals lionise Zelensky, but ignore Marwan Barghouti?

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has had an audience with King Charles ahead of a meeting with UK PM Keir Starmer. Reports suggest Starmer will press allies for more long-range missiles for Ukraine. That kind of support is bipartisan. Boris Johnson was also a huge fan of Zelenskiy. But what about figures like Marwan Barghouti?

Western liberals have lionised the former comedian from the first days of the war. It’s hard not to get a sense of crossover between FBPE Twitter centrists and the president’s fanbase in the UK. It’s another flag for their X bio, after all.

And it’s hard to shake the sense that in Ukraine, finally, well-heeled centrists found a war where the victims were white enough to deserve support. Imperialism seems only to be worth resisting when the victims look like you.

That’s not to dip into the kind of apologia for Vladimir Putin’s invasion preferred by a fringe of campist weirdos in the West. But it does beg questions about why Zelenskiy gets to play international diplomacy on something like easy mode, while others languish in fascist jails, their captivity barely remarked upon by Wooferendum Twitter.

For example, is it even possible to imagine that kind of liberal support for someone like Marwan Barghouti — the so-called Palestinian Nelson Mandela. Barghouti is seen as a figure of unifying popularity in Palestine, even as he languishes in an Israel jail, subject to beatings by his fascistic captors.

Marwan Barghouti: Palestine’s Nelson Mandela

He was sentenced to five life sentences in 2002. For murder charges he denies. By a coloniser court whose authority he rejects. In a trial which experts say was full of illegalities.

He’s a sort of Palestinian everyman, known for his calm demeanour, who learned Hebrew in jail and spent years in exile. He spent years in hiding, dodging Israeli assassination attempts.

The National describes him as:

an avid reader, consuming histories and biographies, including that of Nelson Mandela by the British author Anthony Sampson. In 2013, the campaign for Barghouti’s release, backed by eight Nobel Peace laureates, would be launched from Mandela’s old cell on Robben Island in South Africa.

One of US foreign policy’s leading talking shops even acknowledged his wide appeal and potential to lead a future Palestinian state, noting:

a growing acknowledgement among Israelis and Palestinians that Barghouti’s broad appeal and reformist streak offer the best prospects for peace.

Here’s Drop Site’s News founder Jeremy Scahill with a fascinating overview of Barghouti:

In the latest round of hostage exchanges, despite the best efforts of Hamas negotiators, his release was denied. Barghouti isn’t even in Hamas. He has reportedly been a critic of the organisation himself, but such is the respect he attracts the conservative wing of Palestinian resistance demanded (vainly) he be freed.

So here you have a unique character. An intellectual and long-time prisoner of an unjust regime on allegedly jumped-up charges. A unity figure who commands a degree of respect from all sides. Some say, the man most likely to lead his people toward peace. A sort of moderate, if you will? Surely the sort of figure your average smug centrist would get behind, no? Well, no. It doesn’t seem that way.

And it’s hard not to come to uncharitable conclusions about why.

Featured image via the Canary