Global ‘Free Marwan’ campaign calls for Palestinian political leader’s release

Original article by Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

A global campaign is being launched to secure the release of Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian prisoner seen by many as the best hope of leading a future Palestinian state, as negotiations continue in the context of the current Gaza ceasefire.

The campaign, being led by Barghouti’s West Bank-based family with UK civil society support, is seeking to put the 66-year-old’s fate at the centre of the next stage of the ceasefire.

Successive opinion polls show he is the most popular Palestinian politician in Gaza and the West Bank.

Murals with the words Free Marwan, coordinated by Calum Hall, the founder of Creative Debuts, a creative consultancy and art platform, have started to appear in London, and a huge public art installation appeared in the village of Kobar, near Ramallah.

A letter calling for his release from a range of political and cultural figures is expected to be released next week.

Barghouti has been kept in jail by Israel for more than 20 years after being convicted of planning attacks that led to five civilians being killed. The trial was criticised as deeply flawed by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organisation.

Despite intense pressure from Hamas and the Gulf states, Israel refused to release him as part of the large-scale prisoner exchange that occurred at the time of the ceasefire on 13 October. At one point Donald Trump admitted he was himself considering pushing for his release.

Barghouti, a member of the Fatah party, a bitter rival of Hamas, is an advocate of a two-state solution. Many believe Israel is refusing to release him because they know he will be an effective spokesperson for the Palestinian cause.

Barghouti has frequently been kept in solitary confinement without access to his family, and he has allegedly suffered four major beatings inside prison since 2023, but is said to be still physically and mentally capable of becoming an effective political leader if he is released.

He has not seen his family for three years and his lawyers have seen him five times in two years. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been banned from seeing him, in a breach of international law.

Most recently, he has been taunted and threatened with execution by Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, as captured on video. The Knesset is studying a new bill backed by Ben-Gvir that would permit the death penalty to be imposed on those convicted of nationalist motivated murder.

A pillar of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization, but jailed while Yasser Arafat was still at the helm, it is thought Barghouti could restore credibility to both movements, which have been weakened by the long rule of Mahmoud Abbas, the current president.

An Israeli court in 2004 issued five life sentences against Barghouti plus 40 years for allegedly helping to plan deadly attacks during the second intifada.

In a bid to start shifting Israeli public opinion, his wife Fadwa Barghouti has given her first interviews to the Israeli press. She stressed her husband “sees the two-state solution as the way to move forward and live in peace”.

Arab Barghouti, his son, said his father “represents hope to Palestinians at a time when there are efforts to silence him and make him forgotten”.

He added: “Seeing people around the world raise his name gives me hope. I wish our family’s experience was unique, but thousands of Palestinian families endure the same pain.

“Honouring him in this way is not only a call for his freedom – it is a call for the release of all Palestinian prisoners and a stand for justice for every family still waiting.”