Free Marwan

A Violation of Justice

For more than 50 years, Marwan has played a central political role in the struggle against Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian land – an occupation the International Court of Justice has ruled as unlawful and said must end.

On 15 April 2002, Israeli soldiers disguised in an ambulance seized Marwan from Ramallah, where he was serving as a political leader and elected parliamentarian. He was taken to Israel in violation of the Geneva Conventions and later convicted in a trial widely condemned as illegitimate and politically motivated.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union—representing over 181 national parliaments —found “numerous breaches of international law” in his case, and concluded it was “impossible to say that Mr. Barghouti received a fair trial.”

Despite decades behind bars, poll after poll shows Palestinians would still choose Marwan to lead them. But a unified and democratic Palestinian leadership with a commitment to justice and peace is exactly what Israel’s current leaders want to avoid. In the most recent peace talks, they have so far refused to release Marwan because he represents the greatest threat to the status quo: hope

“What is happening to Barghouti is exactly the same as what happened to me.”

– Nelson Mandela in 2002

A Call for Freedom

A call to Free Marwan is a call to free all Palestinian political prisoners. Marwan is one of 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners – including 350 children – that Israel currently holds in its network of prisons.

Of those, more than a third are administrative detainees, held without charge or trial. Israel’s mass detention of political prisoners lies at the heart of its system of control over Palestinians, and is modelled in part after the British military court system first set up in 1937, under the British Mandate of Palestine. 

Like so many Palestinian political prisoners – Marwan has been subjected to solitary confinement, severe torture and starvation conditions that have sharply increased in severity since 7 October 2023. 

Multiple rights groups have documented a systemic, institutional policy focused on continual abuse and torture for all Palestinian prisoners. In 2024, the Palestinian Commission on Detainees Affairs said it feared for Marwan’s life, citing reports of intensified violence and torture, deteriorating health, and a complete communication ban. 

That fear was further legitimised on 14 August 2025, when Israeli Minister Itamar Ben Gvir released a video in which he personally threatened Marwan inside his prison cell. This unprecedented act — carried out by a sitting cabinet minister — is more than a provocation. It reflects the increasingly dangerous conditions of Marwan’s detention and that of all prisoners, and the wider effort to silence Palestinian leadership. 

Since October 2023, 75 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody. 

A Lifelong Struggle

Marwan was born in 1959 in the West Bank village of Kobar, one of eight children in a small two-bedroom home. He grew up under Israeli military occupation after the 1967 war, witnessing the rise of settlements, military raids, and violent repression. As a child, he saw neighbours beaten and arrested for flying Palestinian flags. Israeli soldiers shot the family dog for barking.

Marwan led protests in Ramallah as a schoolboy and was arrested repeatedly for his political activism. In prison, he was beaten and humiliated—but not broken. He immersed himself in reading, debate, and political organising—experiences that helped shape his future as a national leader.

After his release, Marwan studied history and politics at Birzeit University while continuing to organise student resistance to the occupation and became highly distinguished as a young leader. His belief in justice, dignity, and self-determination—shaped by early years of struggle—would remain the foundation of his political life.

An End to the Occupation

Marwan has consistently believed in a future rooted in international law — a Palestine built on dignity, equality, and self-determination. A fluent Hebrew speaker, he actively participated in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and maintained dialogue with Israel’s peace movement as part of the broader struggle to end Israel’s occupation.

Despite enduring assassination attempts and torture, he has remained unwavering in his belief in the possibility of a political solution, and clear about what it requires. He famously said: “Israelis must abandon the myth that it is possible to have peace and occupation at the same time.” 

Read Marwan in the Washington Post: Want Security? End the occupation

A Nation-Builder

Marwan has upheld the rights of Palestinians enshrined under international law to defend themselves under occupation. But he has long advocated for a comprehensive resistance – one inclusive of cultivating knowledge, culture, literature, art, poetry, music, heritage — alongside strikes, working the land and building schools and universities. 

Read Marwan in the New York Times: Why we are on Hunger Strike in Israel’s Prisons

In prison, Marwan founded a ‘university of struggle’ — organising lectures from 9am to 5pm to cultivate political awareness and national consciousness among prisoners. Nicknamed “the professor” by fellow inmates, he supported over 1,200 Palestinians prisoners to graduate in both bachelor and masters programmes, in subjects covering political science, philosophy, history, languages and law. He completed his own PhD in political science from the University of Cairo while imprisoned, became fluent in Hebrew and English, and wrote books and political analysis.

A Unified Political Vision

Even behind bars, Marwan has worked tirelessly for Palestinian unity and a political solution to end the occupation. Though his roots lie in Fatah—the party of the late Yasser Arafat—his greatest political achievement has been reaching across political divides.

In 2006 he initiated and achieved the creation of the historic ‘Prisoners’ Document’ that for the first time brought together all Palestinian political factions to end internal Palestinian divisions and establish a unified political vision.

This landmark document endorsed a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders, recognising Israel on 78% of historic Palestine. It called for an inclusive Palestinian national government, democratic reform with regular elections, and focused resistance only in the territories occupied in 1967 – opposing attacks on civilians. 

While the international community moves to recognise a Palestinian state, Palestinians have been denied the opportunity to vote in a national election for nearly two decades. The release of Marwan and all Palestinian political prisoners is essential to restoring Palestinian democracy, rebuilding national institutions, and advancing the pursuit of sovereignty.

A Husband and Father

Marwan is a husband, a father of four, and a grandfather of six—though he has never met any of his grandchildren.

When Marwan was sentenced in 2002, only his three youngest children were allowed in the courtroom. As the verdict was read, his youngest son, Arab, rushed towards his father to embrace him, but Arab was tackled and slapped by an Israeli settler before he could reach Marwan. 

For more than two decades, Marwan has had only the briefest and most heavily restricted contact with his family.

A Global Demand

The Barghouti family, led by Marwan’s wife and lawyer Fadwa Barghouti, have campaigned for Marwan Barghouti’s release since the first days of his unlawful imprisonment in 2002. Through her tireless advocacy, Fadwa built an international movement for the freedom of her husband and all Palestinian political prisoners.

Fadwa launched the first international campaign with prominent South African politician and anti-apartheid activist, Ahmed Kathrada, from the prison cell where both Kathrada and Nelson Mandela were incarcerated. Nobel laureates, including Former President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and over 15 former heads of state signed the Robben Island Declaration calling for Marwan’s release.

In a statement announcing the declaration, Desmond Tutu said: “When we call for Marwan Barghouti’s freedom, we are calling for the freedom of all political prisoners and resolution of all injustice in Palestine and Israel.”

Now is the time for us to renew this global demand.