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Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti is taken away under escort September 29, 2003 in Tel Aviv, Israel [File: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images]
The son of prominent Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti says he fears for his father’s life in Israeli prison amid witness reports that he was beaten by guards last month.
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday, Arab Barghouti accused Israel of targeting his father because he is a unifying figure among Palestinians.
“We do fear for my father’s life,” Arab said from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier this week, the family told media outlets that they had received testimonies from Palestinian detainees released as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal that Barghouti was beaten by guards in mid-September as he was being transferred between two Israeli prisons.
Arab told Al Jazeera that the attack is the fourth time since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023 that his father has been assaulted in Israeli detention.
“They are targeting him,” said Arab, explaining that Israel sees his father as “a danger” because of his ability to bring Palestinians together.
A prominent member of Fatah, the Palestinian political faction that dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs limited parts of the occupied West Bank, Barghouti has been in Israeli prison since the early 2000s.
He is serving five life sentences plus 40 years on murder and attempted murder charges, which he has consistently denied.
A Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll from May found that Barghouti was the most popular Palestinian leader, garnering more support than Hamas official Khaled Meshaal and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
Palestinians had called for Barghouti to be released as part of the recent Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, but Israel refused to free him.
As part of the deal, Israel released 250 Palestinians serving life sentences, several of whom were sent into exile abroad. About 1,700 Palestinians who were detained in Gaza and transferred to Israeli detention facilities during the Gaza war were also freed.
One of the released prisoners, Mohammad al-Ardah, told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli forces would carry out “barbaric” raids in the prisons each week, severely beating Palestinian detainees.
“The latest reports we heard about the great leader Marwan Barghouti is that they broke three of his ribs,” al-Ardah said.
The Israeli authorities have denied that Barghouti was beaten in September, with the Israel Prison Service telling BBC News that it “operates in accordance with the law, while ensuring the safety and health of all inmates”.
But Arab, Barghouti’s son, said the Israeli authorities have no credibility.
He also pointed to an August video that showed far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatening Barghouti in prison, as evidence that the Israeli government is trying to “silence” his father’s voice.
“We know that [Ben-Gvir] showed him an electric chair on his phone and he told him, ‘This is your fate’ … If that’s not a threat to his life, I don’t know what is,” Arab told Al Jazeera on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Barghouti’s son said the family has repeatedly asked Israel to allow international lawyers and the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit his father in prison, but their requests have been denied.
“They see him as a danger … because he wants to bring stability, he wants to end the cycle of violence. He wants a unifying Palestinian vision that is accepted by everyone, and the international community, as well,” Arab said.
“They [Israel] know what my father represents, and they don’t want that. They don’t want a partner for peace.”
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