Imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti should be put to death over his leading role in the 2000-05 Second Intifada terrorist war against Israel, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Monday.
“Marwan Barghouti should be taken out,” Ben-Gvir declared at a faction meeting of his Otzma Yehudit Party at the Knesset in Jerusalem, responding to a question from JNS about a petition by Alon Liel, a Reichman University lecturer and former Israeli diplomat, calling for the terrorist’s release.
“Marwan Barghouti is a murderer, he is a terrorist,” the national security minister emphasized. He added, “By the way, in an Israeli prison today, he gets worse conditions than the president of Venezuela. ...
“I think we actually need to learn something from the United States. The death penalty for terrorists. That’s what’s needed,” Ben-Gvir said.
A Knesset bill to impose the death penalty on convicted terrorists passed the first of three readings required to become law on Nov. 10 after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came out in support of the legislation.
Barghouti, 66, one of the most notorious figures of the Second Intifada, was convicted in 2002 for masterminding terrorist attacks against Israelis and foreign nationals. He was sentenced to five life terms plus 40 years.
According to an October poll by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Barghouti would win in a landslide if a vote for the leadership of the Palestinian Authority was held today.
P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas said on Dec. 23 that securing the release of Barghouti “has always been” at the top of his personal and political agendas.
Although Barghouti’s name has periodically surfaced during prisoner-exchange negotiations, successive Israeli governments have refused to release him, citing a risk that he could reignite mass terrorist violence.
Liel, who served as the director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry in 2000 to 2001, urged fellow academics on Dec. 22 to join him in signing a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump urging action to free Barghouti.
The petition, which was accidentally shared with students at Herzliya’s Reichman University, claimed that Barghouti’s release could help renew “peace efforts” between Israel and the Palestinians. Liel’s missive further stated that Barghouti is viewed by many as “the most prominent Palestinian leader of our generation” and that he possesses the ability to unite Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
At the beginning of last month, approximately 200 cultural and literary figures from around the world signed the same letter as part of an international initiative calling for the release of the top terrorist.
Among the celebrities who signed the petition were American Marxist activist Angela Davis; Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei; Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood; and actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Cynthia Nixon, Mark Ruffalo and Ian McKellen.
