The far -right Isrealian Minister Itamar Ben Gvir violently took part in the Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti during a prison visit to Israel. Incarcerated since 2002, this former Fatah executive is seen as a potential candidate to take over from Mahmoud Abbas at the head of the Palestian State.
Far -right Israeli Minister Itamar Ben Gvir broadcast on Friday morning on social networks a video where he takes to task and sermons, in his cell, prisoner Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian leader imprisoned since 2002.
On these images, published on his account X, the Minister of National Security and two other people, including a penitentiary guard, stand in front of Marwan Barghouti and surround him in a corner of his cell.
“You will not defeat us. Whoever hurts the people of Israel, whoever kills children, whoever kills women (…) we will erase them,” said the Minister in Hebrew.
This elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and one of the Fatah leaders then tries to speak, but the minister interrupts him: “No, you have to know, throughout history”.
“This morning (Friday), I read that various senior officials of authority (Palestinian) did not love what I said to the chief terrorist Marwan Barghouti, that his name is erased. So I will repeat it again and again without apologizing: whoever attacks the people of Israel, whoever kills our children, whoever kills our women, will be erased. Itamar Ben Gvir, in comment to the video.
Mahmoud Abbas potential potential
Marwan Barghouti, former Fatah manager who defends a political resolution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been imprisoned since 2002 by Israel. He is regularly quoted as a possible successor to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, despite his detention.
Nicknamed “The Palestinian Mandela” by his supporters, who has become over the years an emblematic figure of the Palestinian cause, he was sentenced to life for murders for his role in various anti-Israelian attacks during the second intifada (“uprising” in Arabic).
The video broadcast on X does not specify the name of the prison where Marwan Barghouti is detained. But according to a member of the Minister’s entourage, questioned by AFP and who requested anonymity, the meeting took place “by chance” in Ganot prison, during an inspection visit to Itamar Ben Gvir. This source did not specify on what date it was filmed.
“My father has lost a lot of weight”
In an interview filmed with AFP, the son of the prisoner, Arab Barghouti, said he was “shocked” by this sequence, castigates “the arrogance” of the Israeli government, for whom “international law and humanitarian law mean nothing”.
“No member of the family has seen my father for more than two years. Personally, I had not seen him for three years. (…) My father has lost a lot of weight and he looks old. We are really concerned and we fear for his life and his protection in the light of the scenes we have seen,” he commented.
“The occupation policy is very clear. They want to prove to the Palestinian people that they are the strongest” by “insulting their leader”, accused Arab Barghouti. “But (…) my father was standing in front of oppression in a small cell, handcuffed, exhausted and visibly tired, but standing with dignity”.
Although it has already been “subject to unimaginable things in the past two years (…), they will not break its image (…) because they represent the Palestinian people and the Palestinian prisoners (…)”, he concluded.
The Palestinian authority denounces “an unprecedented provocation”
In a statement relayed by the Palestinian news agency WAFA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority denounced “an unprecedented provocation” and qualified the incident of “organized state terrorism”.
For the Palestinian authority, Minister Ben Gvir “stormed” the Barghouti cell.
The UN representation of the Palestinian Authority denounced “extremely harsh humanitarian conditions” in which Marwan Barghouti is held.
Hamas, through the voice of Izzat Al-Risheq, member of the political bureau of the Islamist movement, expressed its “solidarity with brother and leader Marwan Barghouti”. He denounced the “savagery” of Minister Ben Gvir, faced with a “prisoner leader, handcuffed and isolated in a lonely cell, barely capable of standing”.
