Author Archives: Oliver SImpson

You are likely to find some of the details in this piece distressing

On 14 August, a video was released showing Minister for National Security Itamar Ben Gvir storming the prison cell of Marwan Barghouti. A former Fatah leader often referred to as the “Palestinian Mandela,” Barghouti is seen as a potential unity figure, historically polling above both Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas among Palestinians. He is also a known advocate for a two-state solution. The footage marked his first public appearance in years; he appears gaunt and almost unrecognisable.

Barghouti was imprisoned in the early 2000s during the Second Intifada, accused by Israel of involvement in attacks that led to the deaths of five people, accusations he has fiercely denied. His trial and imprisonment have been heavily criticised by human rights groups, with The Inter-Parliamentary Union having asserted that the “numerous breaches of international law” to which Barghouti was subjected “make it impossible to conclude that Mr. Barghouti was given a fair trial.” 

Throughout his imprisonment, Barghouti has endured harsh and degrading treatment. This has included being placed in solitary confinement for years, at times making it impossible for his family to visit him. Since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7th, his treatment has become more severe and brutal. Immediately following the attacks, he was put back into solitary confinement. In March 2024, he told his lawyers how he had been “dragged across the floor by his handcuffs, before he was beaten unconscious.” In May 2024, The Guardian described how Barghouti “spends his days huddled in a cramped, dark, solitary cell, with no way to tend to his wounds, and a shoulder injury from being dragged with his hands cuffed behind his back”. His family have expressed their fear that he will die in Israeli prisons due to his mistreatment.

However, the treatment of Marwan Barghouti is anything but an isolated case; the plight of Palestinian detainees is well documented and the brutality they are subject to systematic and widespread. 

Since Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and East Jersualem during the course of the Six Day War in 1967, up to a million Palestinians in the these territories have been arrested and been subject to the Israeli Military Court system (although these courts no longer operate in Gaza since 2005, and East Jerusalem, which Israel has unilaterally annexed in violation to international law). Detainees under this system are subject to numerous abuses which have been widely documented and condemned by human rights groups, including, but not limited to, the mistreatment and torture of detainees, the widespread practice of administrative detention, the impediment a defendants’ access to lawyers and the introduction of “secret evidence” used against the accused. 

Under this system, roughly 20% of the Palestinian population have been arrested at some point in their lives, with this statistic rising to 40% for the male population.