Ever since the events of Oct. 7, 2023, Hollywood’s involvement in the war between Israel and Hamas has been strongly felt, whether through star-led protests against Israel and petition campaigns, criticism of those who support Israel, or the conspicuous silence of others in the face of Hamas’s attack and its consequences.
But in recent months, a new-old proposal for managing the decades-long conflict in the Middle East has been bubbling up among the stars of Tinseltown—the release of Marwan Barghouti.
Around 200 leading industry figures have signed a petition calling for his release from Israeli prison, with the hope that the terrorist will become the leader of a future Palestinian state.
Among the signatories to the petition, you will find names that haven’t escaped notice around the world, such as British actors Sir Ian McKellen and Benedict Cumberbatch, musician Sting, Jewish actresses Miriam Margolyes—known mainly from the “Harry Potter” film series—and Hannah Einbinder, joining actors who have already expressed their anti-Israel views over the years, Mark Ruffalo and Javier Bardem.
Who does Hollywood want to crown as “Palestinian Mandela” and the future leader of a Palestinian state?
15-year-old Fatah operative
Born in the village of Kobar, near Ramallah, in 1959, Barghouti joined the Fatah terrorist movement under the Palestine Liberation Organization at the age of 15. Israeli authorities detained him at age 19, and he served a two-year prison sentence for involvement as an operative in a Fatah unit that carried out a terrorist attack.
During the First Intifada of the late 1980s, Barghouti gained political prominence in Judea and Samaria by directing Palestinian clashes with Israeli forces. He enrolled at Birzeit University to study history and political science, but his campus political work for Fatah, and his involvement in establishing Fatah’s youth movement, Shabiba, triggered another imprisonment and subsequent deportation to Jordan.
Barghouti returned to Judea and Samaria in 1994, enabled by the terms of the Oslo Accords. He supported the Oslo Accords and even engaged in dialogue with Israeli political figures, an approach that significantly differed from his previous behavior within Fatah.
He began positioning himself against Yasser Arafat, then-leader of Fatah, particularly over disagreements with the Palestinian Authority. At the same time, he seized the opportunity to consolidate his power further within Fatah, whether through participation in mass demonstrations or by aiding and promoting terrorists from Fatah’s Tanzim militia, who pioneered terrorist strikes against Israel during the Second Intifada, which he led in 2000.
When the Second Intifada erupted that September, Barghouti was directing marches toward IDF checkpoints and provoking riots against Israeli soldiers. His compelling speeches aimed at urging Palestinians to use violence to drive Israel from Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip. During intensifying violence, Fatah spawned a new terrorist branch called the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which conducted strikes against Israelis—including the March 2002 suicide bombing that killed 30 and wounded 140 others at a Passover seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya.
Israeli authorities accused Barghouti—still commanding the Tanzim—of holding a prominent position in the Aqsa Brigades, and Israeli forces arrested him in April 2002 by tracking his phone. Israel charged him with membership in a terrorist organization and dozens of murder counts for ordering deadly attacks, with the Tel Aviv District Court in 2004 convicting him of five charges and imposing five life sentences plus 40 years.
The court found Barghouti accountable for a June 2001 attack in Ma’ale Adumim that resulted in the death of Greek monk Tsibouktsakis Germanus, a January 2002 kidnapping and murder of American citizen Yoela Hen, a March 2002 attack at Tel Aviv’s Seafood Market restaurant that killed Eli Dahan, Yosef Habi and Salim Barakat, and a car bombing in Jerusalem.
The connection to Hamas
Despite two decades of imprisonment, Barghouti has preserved much of his political power—including playing a key role in facilitating negotiations between Hamas and Fatah in February 2007 before Fatah’s bloody ouster by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, and securing election to Fatah’s party leadership in absentia in 2009.
Throughout negotiations between Hamas and Israel since Oct. 7, Hamas has repeatedly demanded Barghouti’s release, despite his membership in the rival Fatah organization.
Hamas’s demand for his release connects to debates about Gaza’s “day after"—Mahmoud Abbas’s succession as the president of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas’s future involvement in Palestinian political affairs. Since Abbas is unpopular among Palestinians, and Hamas is looking to extend its reach to Judea and Samaria, Barghouti, who has garnered significant support from Palestinians, has become Abbas’s natural successor.
Last March, Fadwa Barghouti began campaigning for her husband, hoping he might replace Abbas as president. Her campaign, which included meetings with high-ranking officials in the Arab world and the U.S., has also received support from pro-Palestinian Hollywood stars, as Barghouti is portrayed as a leader who will unify the Palestinian people in both Gaza and in Judea and Samaria.
Hamas previously attempted to secure Barghouti’s release during negotiations for the return of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped in 2006. Even then, Israel firmly refused, and Shalit was released in return for 1,027 terrorists.
The Shalit deal continues to stir controversy in Israeli society. Given the risks associated with freeing Barghouti, his release remained off the table during the Iron Swords War negotiations as well.
Originally published by Israel Hayom.
