Once again Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir has emerged as the number one antagonist of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement after a provocative video was released on Friday, August 15, showing him taunting Prominent Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti in prison.
“You won’t win. Whoever messes with the people of Israel, whoever murders our children, whoever murders our women, we will wipe them out,” Ben-Gvir told Barghouti.
“You will not defeat us. You have to know this throughout history,” he warned.
The video sparked wide outrage and condemnation among Palestinian grassroots
The video has not only showcased Ben-Gvir’s deep resentment and dehumanization of Palestinians, but showed the eminent Palestinian freedom fighter looking gaunt and weary, which in turn provoked the ire and condemnation of Barghouti’s family as well as the Palestinian grassroots.
The miserable physical appearance of Barghouti represents a living embodiment of the continuously deteriorating situation of all Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails. Their situation took a turn for the worse in January 2023, when Ben-Gvir unleashed a brutal crackdown campaign directly impacting prisoners’ conditions and access to the outside world.
The image of Marwan in the video was so shocking that reportedly his wife Fadwa Barghouti did not recognize him when she watched the video.
“I didn’t recognize you or your features, and maybe part of me doesn’t want to admit everything your face and body express about what you and the prisoners have endured,” Fadwa addressed her imprisoned husband in a public message she wrote on Facebook.
“They are still chasing you and pursuing you, oh Marwan, even after 23 years in prison and in the solitary cell you’ve been living in for two years,” she lamented.
“I know that the only thing that hurts you is the inability to protect our [Palestinian] sons and daughters,” Barghouti’s wife added.
“You are from the people, no matter where you might be you are with them, one of them, your destiny is related to their destiny. This is how you have been and will always be,” she asserted.
For his part, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, told France 24, that the goading carceral visit reflects the fascist character of Ben-Gvir and the Israeli government in general.
“What he did towards our brother Marwan Barghouti is a terrorist crime and a murder threat,” Dr. Mustafa emphasized.
Meanwhile, Palestine’s ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour condemned Ben-Gvir’s abusive act against Marwan Barghouti describing it as “racist and fascistic hate, and a deplorable and immoral behavior that violate international law, which “prohibits such heinous acts in dealing with prisoners and detainees.”’
Why did Ben-Gvir choose Marwan Barghouti among other prisoners
Marwan Barghouti has, for decades, garnered an extraordinary popularity among Palestinians nationwide and in diaspora. The 66-year-old patriot, who has spent over 23 years in Israeli prisons, is seen by his people as their “Nelson Mandela”, being a unifying revolutionary icon.
Furthermore, Marwan has for long been a strong presidential candidate, which made Israel more determined not to release him in any of the former captives-for-prisoners swap deals.
As a result, Ben-Gvir wanted to break the will of the Palestinian people as a whole through his attempts to break that of Marwan, by depicting him weak-willed and frail.
The post Ben-Gvir provokes Palestinians with threat to prominent Palestinian leader and prisoner Marwan Barghouti appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.
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