He is the latest Palestinian celebrity: a 67-year-old man with flowing grey hair who has swapped an Israeli prison for the Park Hotel, the closest Ramallah has to the Ritz.
As he sits in the lobby young men and woman come to greet him and kiss him on both cheeks. They are members of the youth section of Fatah, Yasser Arafat's political organization, who happen to have a meeting in the hotel. He is Ahmed Jubarah, a member of Fatah who has just finished a 28-year prison sentence for a bombing which killed 13 and injured 70.
He is reluctant to relish his freedom. "I am still not free. I left Ramallah 28 years ago and I have come back and it's still under occupation. I cannot be joyous, I have left many friends in prison. Some of them have served almost as much time as me. Until they are free I will not be free."
He was found guilty of planting a bomb in a refrigerator which was then dumped in Zion Square, in Jerusalem. While many of his contemporaries were freed in amnesties he became the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, until he was released as a gesture of goodwill by the Israeli government last Tuesday.
As a young man he traveled and worked all over Central and South America, and owned a supermarket in Chicago. "But all the time I wanted to get home to Turmus Ayya," he said -- a village 25km north of Ramallah.
He divorced his Colombian wife with whom he had three children, remarried and had another three children. But returning to the West Bank meant a return to politics and the struggle against the Israeli occupation.
"I have always been involved in the Palestinian struggle. I saw what happened in 1948 and later I was involved in a few things before I was arrested," he said.
He refused to talk about the bombing for which he was jailed, saying only, "I was in Jordan," and neither apologizing nor showing remorse. "Have the Israelis apologized for bombing our refugee camps and cities? They never think about us. Every day they are still killing people in spite of the discussions that are going on.
"When there is peace and they say sorry for killing Palestinians, then I will apologize. When you are at war you fight and when you are at peace you support the peace. Now I just want to stop the fighting. My message to the world is: Stop this madness, let there be no more victims."
Despite being a Palestinian icon it is unlikely that Mr Jubarah is in much of a position to influence events. In the 1970s he was a Fatah footsoldier and he has been elevated by the time he has spent in prison. His call for peace, like that of most Palestinians, is equivocal. He still believes that while there is Israeli occupation there should be Palestinian resistance.
He served his sentence in seven prisons, worked-out for two to three hours every day, and studied for a school leaving certificate.
He learned Hebrew and improved his command of English, Spanish and Portuguese.
He has little idea what he wants to do in future, but his eyes light up at the mention of travel. "I wish I could go to America. I want to visit friends in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Texas, my sister in Florida. I hope they let me enter the country."
For the moment his home is the Park Hotel as he gets to grips with a world that has changed enormously in 28 years.
Looking out the window at Ramallah's urban sprawl, he said: "This place has grown five times since I left. Now there are buildings with 12 floors." His eyes move to the lobby where the young Fatah activists are milling around in fashionable jeans and T-shirts. "The young people have more liberty. It is more democratic. I have seen women smoking the narghile [water pipe]. I have never seen that before. I don't know if it is a good or a bad thing."
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