THE DIVISION of the Palestinian territories into a “Hamastan” in the Gaza Strip and a “Fatahland” in the West Bank is a disaster.

A disaster for the Palestinians, a disaster for peace, and therefore also a disaster for Israelis.

The Israeli political and military leadership is happy about the split, according to the doctrine “What’s bad for Palestine is good for Israel.” This doctrine has guided Zionist policy right from the beginning. Haim Arlosoroff, the Zionist leader who was murdered by hands unknown on the seashore of Tel-Aviv in 1933, already condemned this doctrine in his last speech: “Not everything that is bad for the Arabs is good for the Jews, and not everything that is good for the Arabs is bad for the Jews.”

Will the Palestinians overcome this split?

It seems that the chances for that are getting smaller by the day. The gulf between the two parties is getting wider and wider.

The Fatah people in the West Bank, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, condemn Hamas as a gang of fanatics, who are imitating Iran and are guided by it, and who, like the ayatollahs, are leading their people toward catastrophe.

The Hamas people accuse Abbas of being a Palestinian Marshal Petain, who has made a deal with the occupier and is sliding down the slippery slope of collaboration.

The propaganda of both sides is full of venom, and the mutual violence is reaching new heights.

It looks like a cul-de-sac. Many Palestinians have despaired of finding a way out. Others are searching for creative solutions. Afif Safieh, the chief of the PLO mission in Washington, for example, proposes setting up a Palestinian government composed entirely of neutral experts, who are neither members of Fatah nor of Hamas. The chances for that are very slim indeed.

But in private conversations in Ramallah, one name pops up more and more often: Marwan Barghouti. “He holds the key in his hand,” they say there, “both for the Fatah-Hamas and for the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.”

Some see Marwan as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela. In appearances, the two are very different, both physically and in temperament. But they have much in common.

Both became national heroes behind prison bars. Both were convicted of terrorism. Both supported violent struggle. Mandela supported the 1961 decision of the National African Congress to start an armed struggle against the racist government (but not against the white civilians). He remained in prison for 28 years and refused to buy his freedom by signing a statement denouncing “terrorism.” Marwan supported the armed struggle of Fatah’s Tanzim organization and has been sentenced to several life terms.

But both were in favor of peace and reconciliation, even before going to prison. I saw Barghouti for the first time in 1997, when he joined a Gush Shalom demonstration in Harbata, the village neighboring Bilin, against the building of the Modiin-Illit settlement that was just starting. Five years later, during his trial, we demonstrated in the courthouse under the slogan “Barghouti to the negotiating table, not to prison!”

Last week we visited Barghouti’s family in Ramallah.

I had met Fadwa Barghouti for the first time at Yasser Arafat’s funeral. Her face was wet with tears. We were crowded among the multitude of mourners, the din was ear-splitting and we could not exchange more than a few words.

This time she was calm and composed. She laughed only when she heard that Teddy Katz, a Gush activist who took part in the meeting, had sacrificed a toenail for Marwan: During our protest in court we were violently attacked by the guards and one of them stamped his heavy boot on Teddy’s sandaled foot.

Fadwa is a lawyer by profession, a mother of four (three sons, one daughter). The oldest, Kassem, has already been in prison for half a year without trial. She is a dark-blond woman (“All the family members, except Marwan, are blond,” she explained, adding with a rare smile: “Perhaps because of the Crusaders.”)

The Barghoutis are a large Hamula (extended family), inhabiting six villages near Bir Zeit. Dr. Mustapha Barghouti, the physician who is well-known for his human rights activities, is a distant relative. Marwan and Fadwa — also a Barghouti by birth — were born in Kobar village.

Marwan’s family lives in a nice apartment. On my way there, I noticed the widespread building activity in Ramallah — it looks as if new buildings are going up on every corner, including commercial high-rises.

Fadwa is one of the few persons allowed to visit him. Not as a lawyer, but only as “close family” — a definition that includes parents, spouses, siblings and children under 16. She also needs a permit every time, which allows her only to go directly to the prison and back, without stopping anywhere in Israel. The three sons are not allowed to meet their father anymore, since all three have passed the age of 16. Only the young daughter can visit him.

There is hardly anyone who is more popular with the Palestinian public than Marwan. In this, too, he resembles Mandela while in prison.

It is difficult to explain the source of this authority. It does not emanate from his high position in Fatah, since the movement is disorganized and there is hardly any clear hierarchy. From the time when he was a simple activist in his village, he rose in the organization by sheer force of personality. It is that mysterious thing called charisma. He radiates a quiet authority that does not depend on outward signs.

The war of vilification between Fatah and Hamas does not touch him. Hamas takes care not to attack him. On the contrary, when they submitted a list of prisoners in exchange for the captured soldier Gilad Shalit, Marwan Barghouti, in spite of his being a Fatah leader, headed the list.

It was he who, together with the imprisoned leaders of the other organizations, composed the famous “prisoners’ document,” which called for national unity. All Palestinian factions accepted the document. Thus the “Makkah agreement,” which created the (short-lived) Government of National Unity, was born. Before it was signed by the parties, urgent messengers were sent to Marwan, in order to obtain his agreement. Only when this was given, did the signing take place.

Marwan’s adherents do not shrink back from self-criticism. In their opinion, Fatah is not without blame for what happened in Gaza. The movement did not act wisely when they arrested and humiliated the Hamas leaders.

Hamas’ center of gravity is in the Gaza Strip. That is the problem of Khaled Mashal, the Hamas leader who resides in Damascus. Unlike his two deputies, he has no roots in Gaza. That’s why he needs money to reinforce his standing there. He gets it from Iran.

How will the Palestinians get out of this bind? How can they re-establish a national leadership that will be accepted by all parts of the people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, able to lead the national struggle and make peace with Israel, when peace becomes possible?

Marwan’s followers believe that at the right time, when Israel comes to the conclusion that it needs peace, he will be released from prison and play a central role in the reconciliation — much as Mandela was released from prison in South Africa when the white government came to the conclusion that the Apartheid regime could not be sustained anymore. I have no doubt that in order to bring such a situation about, the Israeli peace forces must start a big public campaign for Barghouti’s release.