Hundreds of Palestinians were released from Israeli jails as part of an exchange at the heart of the ceasefire deal brokered between Hamas and Israel, but one was conspicuously absent: Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian leader who has been jailed for more than two decades.
The 66-year-old former Fatah commander is serving five life sentences after being convicted of involvement in attacks that killed Israelis during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, which started in 2000 and lasted about five years.
Israel also accused him of founding the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a US-designated terrorist group that operated as the armed wing of Fatah before the movement announced its dissolution in 2007. He refused to recognize the court’s authority, saying it had no jurisdiction over him as a Palestinian living under occupation.
Barghouti’s name was top of a list that Hamas negotiators presented during talks to end the two-year Israel-Hamas war. However, Israel said he also acted as a liaison between late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and Fatah’s armed groups, allegedly overseeing the transfer of weapons, funds and orders for operations.
For right-wing politicians, setting him free is a “red line.”
For Palestinians, the decision is seen as a move not to “grant Hamas this victory, one that could empower a person capable of uniting everyone around him and offering a new political ambition for the Palestinian movement,” said Jehad Harb, head of the Ramallah-based Thabat Survey Research and Opinion Polls.
Barghouti is often described by supporters as the “Palestinian Mandela.”
Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, Netanyahu’s government released about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and Hamas is releasing the remaining hostages it took on Oct. 7, 2023, when its fighters attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people.
In Israel’s retaliatory war on the group — which ruled Gaza, and is considered a terrorist organization by the US and the EU — at least 67,000 Palestinians have been killed, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
The question of governance of the Palestinian Territories is one of the thorniest questions left to negotiate.
In August, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir posted footage on social media showing Barghouti in his prison cell. His frail, gaunt look sparked concern for his health. Palestinian rights groups said he has been held in solitary since the Oct. 7 attacks, and has been “brutally assaulted” by guards.
Barghouti’s political rise began in the 1980s during the first intifada, when he emerged as one of its most prominent young leaders. He was deported to Jordan by then-Israeli minister of defense Yitzhak Rabin, returning years later to the West Bank — the larger of the two Palestinian Territories — where he was born.
He survived several assassination attempts, including an Israeli airstrike on his convoy near his office in Ramallah in 2001, and a year later was arrested then sentenced to prison.
Even from behind bars, Barghouti retained influence, issuing statements urging national unity and political reform. He was among the authors of the 2006 “Prisoners’ Document,” which sought to bridge internal divisions and reaffirm support for a two-state solution.
His ability to maintain ties across multiple factions made him a rare figure respected by both organizations, whose months-long fight ended in 2007 with Hamas taking over Gaza and Fatah leading the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
“It’s clear that Barghouti is one of the major Palestinian kingpins in Israel’s prisons now,” said Michael Milshtein, who directs Palestinian studies at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.
Referring to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Milshtein added that Barghouti is “very much looking to succeed Abu Mazen.”
“If he ends up contesting and winning an election from behind bars, it’ll be a cause of great consternation for Israel and in Ramallah,” Milshtein said. “Israel will face enormous pressure to release him, as he will be the Palestinian president. In Ramallah, meanwhile, there will be confusion as to how to administer power with the president in prison.”
With assistance from Fares Alghoul,Dan Williams and Fadwa Hodali
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