News / Palestine / Foreign Policy

British MP calls Barghouti ‘powerful unifying voice’ for Palestinians, urges his release

Thursday, 16 October 2025 6:48 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 16 October 2025 6:48 AM ]

Prominent Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, center, raises his handcuffed hands in the air on the opening day of his trial in Tel Aviv, the Israeli-occupied territories, in 2002. (File photo by AP)

A member of the British parliament for the left-wing Green Party has called for the release of jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, describing him as a "powerful unifying voice" for Palestinians.

“Marwan Barghouti is a powerful unifying voice for Palestinians who could potentially play a crucial role in securing meaningful and lasting peace in the region,” Ellie Chowns said.

Palestinian sources report that Barghouti suffered four broken ribs after being beaten by Israeli prison guards last month.

Arab Barghouti said his 66-year-old father was assaulted by eight guards on September 14, as he was being transferred between Ganot and Megiddo prisons.

Barghouti stated that five of the Palestinian prisoners, who were released and deported to Egypt by the Israeli authorities on Monday, had been informed of the Palestinian leader's account of his treatment upon his arrival at Megiddo prison.

Israel forces 154 Palestinian prisoners freed under Gaza ceasefire deal into exile

Families of many of the Palestinian prisoners being released by Israel under an exchange deal say they were shocked after they learned their loved ones would be deported to third countries.

“What we know is that while they were transferring my father, they stopped along the way and eight security guards within the prison authority that worked for the prison authority started beating my father up in different ways, by kicking him, by [throwing] him on the ground, by punching him, focusing on the head area, chest area and legs as well,” he said.

Barghouti added that his father later told fellow prisoners he lost consciousness as a result of the attack.

“The released detainees say that when he came to Megiddo he could barely walk for days.”

Barghouti said it was the fourth time his father had been beaten over the past two years.

The 66-year-old, a senior leader of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, is one of the most distinguished and popular figures in Palestinian politics.

Barghouti, seen by many Palestinians as a potential successor to Abbas, has been incarcerated since 2002. He has been serving five life sentences in Israeli prisons on charges related to the Second Intifada (Uprising), which began in 2000.

Barghouti has contested the charges leveled against him and has also dismissed the authority of the Israeli court to prosecute him as a member of the Palestinian Authority's parliament.

In a recent captive-prisoner exchange with the Tel Aviv regime, Hamas negotiators made considerable efforts to have Barghouti released. The Gaza-based resistance group handed over the remaining 20 living Israeli captives in exchange for 1,968 Palestinian detainees, but ultimately could not secure his release.

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