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. 

Children have not been spared from these abuses. Since 2000, around 10,000 children have been detained under and subject to the Israeli military detention system. According to a Save the Children report, published in July 2023, 86% of children detained were beaten, 60% experienced solitary confinement, 70% said they suffered from hunger and 68% said they didn’t receive any healthcare. Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq reported in 2015 that none of the 860 torture complaints filed since 2001 have led to a criminal investigation. 

Following the Hamas-led attacks on October 7th and the commencement of Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza, Israel has carried out mass arrests and forced disappearances throughout both Gaza and the West Bank. Those arrested or detained include journalists, political activists, artists, medical professionals, and other civilians – including women and children. As noted by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, just as Marwan Barghouti had been subjected to treatment amounting to torture, such treatment has “become standard across all detention facilities since 7 October.” 

One of the most horrifying stories that has emerged has been the torture and murder of the head of orthopaedics at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, Adnan al-Bursh; his story was told in the Channel 4 documentary ‘Gaza: Doctors Under Attack’. Al Bursh was detained in December 2023, along with other medics, for “national security reasons”. Four months later, prison guards at Ofer Prison dragged and dumped him in the prison yard, naked from the waist down, bleeding and unable to stand. He died shortly afterwards. Al-Bursh’s body remains withheld by the Israeli authorities. No one has been held accountable for his death in custody. 

Both Barghouti’s and al-Bursh’s horrifying experiences are emblematic of the wider system of abuse and ill-treatment that has defined the lives of Palestinian detainees for decades. Without concerted international action to hold Israel accountable, his case will remain one of many and the cycle of impunity will persist.

* Oliver Simpson is a member of the Tower Hamlets local party and is a member of Lib Dem Friends of Palestine