Figurehead of Palestinians’ hope for unity, remains influential behind bars

RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank — On a wall separating Jerusalem from the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, a mural depicts Yasser Arafat, the late leader who became synonymous with the Palestinian cause, next to the man some are hoping will carry on his legacy.

His supporters have dubbed Marwan Barghouti the “Palestinian Nelson Mandela” in the hope that after more than two decades behind bars, he can emulate the late South African leader and make the journey from prisoner to national unifier.   

The 65-year-old has consistently polled higher than any other leader among Palestinians as the man they would pick to be a consensus candidate for the physically and politically divided people, and his release is also supported by several high-profile Israelis, including Ami Ayalon, a former director of the country’s domestic security agency.

In a June poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 29% of respondents picked him out as their preferred successor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, well ahead of Hamas’ leader and the alleged mastermind of the Oct. 7 terror attacks, Yahya Sinwar.

“He wants to see the Palestinians united,” Barghouti’s son, Arab Barghouti, 34, said at his home in Ramallah, adding that his father had been “very vocal and public against corruption in Palestinian politics.”

Arab Barghouti added that the U.S. and several foreign governments had spoken to him and his family since Hamas launched the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 240 were taken hostage. Israel’s offensive in Gaza since then has killed more than 41,000 people, according to health officials in the enclave.

They wanted to learn more about his father and his views, said Arab Barghouti, a life coach who added that he steered clear of politics. “The American Embassy here, they showed interest in knowing more about what’s happening with him, his safety, his health and the status that he’s in,” he said.

NBC News has approached the U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs for comment.

His father believes in a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinian people, he said.

For the moment, however, Barghouti remains behind the bars of an Israeli prison where he is serving five life sentences after his conviction in 2004 for the murder of four Israelis and a Greek Orthodox monk during the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, two years earlier.

Prosecutors alleged he directed the drive-by shooting that killed Father Germanos in June 2001 and left another civilian dead. He was also found guilty of masterminding an early-morning attack on a seafood restaurant in Tel Aviv that killed three civilians in March 2002.

Barghouti refused to recognize the authority of the Israeli court and offered no defense at trial, but his years behind bars have done little to diminish his political power within Fatah, the secular nationalist organization established by Arafat and fellow activists in the late 1950s, which still governs the occupied West Bank today.

A veteran of the group, Barghouti, who was born in the West Bank village of Kobar in 1962, became secretary-general of Fatah in the territory in 1994, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a pan-European think tank.

Israel has also accused him of helping to set up the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a loose network of military groups associated with Fatah, which the U.S. government designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2002 and has taken part in numerous attacks on Israelis since its foundation in 1981.

“During the Second Intifada, he allegedly directed military attacks against Israeli targets,” the ECFR says.

At that time, Palestinian militants carried out deadly suicide bombings and shootings inside both Israel and the Palestinian territories, targeting buses, restaurants and hotels.

Since then, Barghouti has repeatedly stated that he supports only unarmed resistance.

Barghouti spends his time in prison reading, his son said, adding that he learned Hebrew, earned a Ph.D. in political science and international relations and has taught hundreds of other inmates.

“He’s someone who creates something out of nothing, and he believes in education for the Palestinian people,” Arab Barghouti added. “He always used to tell me that education is the biggest weapon that we can have as Palestinians to face the oppression that we’re going through.”

Barghouti’s political ambitions remain undimmed however.

From jail, he has renewed a call for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and in 2017, he led more than 1,500 prisoners in a 40-day hunger strike across several jails to call for better treatment in the Israeli prison system.

Although he was still behind bars, three years later he registered his own list for parliamentary elections in the West Bank, in a direct challenge to Abbas, who leads the Palestinian Authority, the internationally recognized, self-rule government that oversees parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Abbas later called off the vote.

His entry reflected growing frustration with Abbas, whose unpopular regime has been accused of corruption and cooperation with the Israeli army, while failing to achieve national unity or advance Palestinian hopes for an independent state.

“No one talks to the Palestinian people,” Mira Al-Ghoul, 28, said in an interview near her home in East Jerusalem last month. “We don’t have any leaders here in the streets.” She added that “Barghouti will retain that trust, because I do believe that he has that empathy with the Palestinian people.”

“He knows the struggles, he’s been through it all,” she said.

While Barghouti is associated with their Fatah rivals, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, also called for his release in February in an apparent recognition of his status as a uniquely unifying figure.

And he has also garnered support from some sectors of Israeli society who see him as more moderate than Hamas, which has governed Gaza since its fighters wrested power from Fatah and removed all of its officials in 2007.

Ayalon, the former Shin Bet director, is among those who want to see him released.

“When I say that he should be released in order to be the future leader of Palestinians, I’m not doing it for all Palestinians, I’m doing it for us,” he said in an interview last month. “I believe that Israel will survive, meaning we will improve our security and will maintain our identity as a Jewish democracy only in the reality of two states.”

While State Department officials tread carefully on this issue, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in an email to NBC News last month that he believed a two-state solution is the only way forward.

“Ami Ayalon and others have said Marwan Barghouti may be the one leader who can be an effective partner for peace,” he said. “He has renounced the use of violence, recognizes Israel’s right to exist, and seeks reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.

But Israel has previously rejected opportunities to free him. In October 2011, when more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners were freed in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Israel released Hamas’ political head, Yahya Sinwar, who Israel would later allege was the mastermind of the Oct. 7 attacks. But it kept Barghouti behind bars, although it is unclear if Barghouti’s release was sought.

In November’s exchange of prisoners for hostages, he was also not released, a decision that was welcomed by some Israelis. Asked if any of their members would like to comment on Barghouti’s potential release, a spokesperson for the National Organization of Victims of Terror nonprofit said he’d spoken to two families to ask for comment and they were “very upset just listening to the name of Barghouti. They’re not willing to talk at all.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment on whether it would consider releasing Barghouti.

In the meantime, Barghouti’s son Arab said his dad was determined to stick with what he told his wife, Fadwa, when they were married in 1984.