Why did Ben Gvir single out Marwan Barghouti for a personal visit?

Extremist Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir's decision to storm the prison cell of Marwan Barghouti in mid-August – leaked in a video clip - was a clear attempt to deal a heavy blow to the moral symbolism embodied by the Palestinian national prisoner movement, due to Barghouti's iconic status in the context of the Israeli prison system, on both national and international levels.

Ben Gvir, and behind him the entire Zionist colonial enterprise, fully realise the significance of the national prisoner movement's role in the formation and maintenance of Palestinian national consciousness; as well as the fact that the prisoners are a core pillar of the national struggle.

As for Marwan Barghouti, in particular, the importance of his role can be ascertained when considering the document he signed with Ahmed Saadat (the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who was jailed in 2002) along with other faction leaders in 2006. This document called for an end to internal division, for clear mechanisms to be set out to halt the weakening of the movement being caused by internal Palestinian division, and for the proposal of a national liberation project aimed at ending the occupation and building a Palestinian state.

A unifying figure

Marwan Barghouti is one of the key figures from Fatah, but his significance today has eclipsed that of a factional leader and he is regarded a symbol of the Palestinian national struggle. He was born in Ramallah, and imprisoned several times, before being forced into exile from occupied Palestine in 1986.

He returned to his homeland in 1994 and was elected Secretary-General of Fatah in the same year. It was his active role in the Second Intifada which would seal his fate for the next 23 years – incarceration in Israeli prisons – due to him playing a prominent role in the uprising and within Fatah's military wing.

However, the particular venom with which the Israeli leadership has long viewed Barghouti can be explained by the broad popularity he enjoys among all Palestinian factions, as well as across the secular nationalist-Islamist spectrum, whereby he is viewed by many as possibly the only unifying figure in Palestinian politics. For Israel, keeping the Palestinian factions divided has been one major guarantor that a Palestinian state cannot emerge.

Practically every opinion poll since his imprisonment two decades ago shows Barghouti to be the favourite presidential candidate for Palestinians, were they able to hold free elections. Moreover, testifying to the cross-factional respect he enjoys, his name has been consistently included in the prisoner-swap lists provided by Hamas to the Israelis.

Thirst for revenge

It must be noted that Gvir began enacting his policies of revenge against Palestinian prisoners well before 7 October – these were being rolled out since he took office as Minister of National Security, when he also declared himself in charge of the prisons.

He has worked to dismantle all the achievements secured over decades by the Palestinian prisoners, for which martyrs have paid with their lives and hunger strikers with their health.

The starkest of Ben Gvir's vengeful measures were abolishing the prisoners' representative bodies, reducing family visits from twice a month to once a month, and, in a sadistic show of further harassment, imposing a two minute warm shower per prisoner, along with other completely arbitrary measures.

The assault on the prisons escalated sharply in the wake of October 7, when prisoners were exposed to a clear policy of extermination, enacted through deliberate medical neglect and a marked increase in the level of violence. This was inflicted on them by way of the so-called "repression units" deployed by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) under Gvir's orders, to decimate prisoner morale and strike at the wider symbolism they hold.

He even ordered the IPS to hang images of Gaza's destruction in the prison courtyards and on the walls facing the prisoners' rooms. As well as this, secret detention camps were built after 7 October, like Sde Teiman, where a policy of enforced disappearance of prisoners, especially Gazans, has been carried out.

These revenge-based measures, alongside the policy of systematic abuse already in place, has caused the number of martyrs from the prisoner movement to double. Over 65 Palestinians have died under torture or following violence or medical neglect in Israeli custody since October 7 – a record number of Palestinian prisoners killed since the Nakba of 1948.

The attempted symbolic blow that Ben Gvir sought to achieve by storming Marwan Barghouti's isolation cell in Ganot prison reflects the brittleness of the Zionist political position right now. It also highlights the extent to which the occupation is lashing out in its effort to respond to the crucial role of the prisoner movement, represented by Barghouti and others, especially at this critical juncture of the Palestinian national struggle.

Salah Hammouri is a French-Palestinian human rights lawyer and a native Jerusalemite. His residency status was officially revoked by Israel's interior minister, Ayelet Shaked, in October 2021 under the pretext of a "breach of allegiance to the State of Israel." 

Follow Salah on Twitter: @salah_hamouri

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Translated by Rose Chacko

Opinions expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect those of her employer, or of The New Arab and its editorial board or staff.