March 28, 2024 (EIRNS)—Any sane approach for Israel to have a stable Palestinian population on its border is, for all intents and purposes, centered around the figure of Marwan Barghouti, held in Israel’s maximum security Megiddo Prison, now for over 20 years. The popular figure, with a history of defending Palestinian interests while still being open to Israel’s interests as a nation, is seen as a possible successor to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Barghouti is minimally key to any prisoner-hostage exchange, and evidently has been at the top of Hamas’s lists for prisoners to be exchanged.
Evidence of the increasing harassment and mistreatment of Barghouti was published by the Washington Post yesterday. Barghouti’s son, Arab, presented the Post with a written report from a lawyer who had met with Barghouti this week, which included evidence of beatings and bruising. The Post reported: “The lawyer wrote that Barghouti told him that, on March 6, ‘I was beaten for long minutes all over my body, mainly on the face, back, and legs. The severity of the beating caused me to collapse to the ground, at which point they persisted in striking me until I lost consciousness.’”
Arab said that his father, in the Post’s words, “was physically assaulted, placed in solitary confinement in darkness for 12 days, and the Israeli national anthem was pumped into his cell ‘at a very high volume, from around 5 a.m. until midnight, for many days'.”
