Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh, who is responsible for civilian coordination with Israel, on Monday urged the international community to intervene to put a stop to alleged “repressive measures” taken against convicted terrorists jailed in the Jewish state.
Al-Sheikh, head of the P.A.'s General Authority of Civil Affairs and secretary-general of the PLO’s Executive Committee, called on the nations of the world “to intervene immediately and urgently in order to stop the repressive measures against our prisoners and our leaders in the occupation prisons, protect them, and release them immediately.
“Our heroic prisoners in the occupation prisons are exposed to the ugliest forms of torture, abuse, brutality and isolation, the latest of which is what the brother leader Marwan Barghouti is exposed to in terms of isolation, torture and attempts to coerce, humiliate and beat him, putting his life in danger,” al-Sheikh claimed in a post on X.
Marwan Barghouti, 64, was one of the leaders of the First and Second Intifadas, in which terrorists killed and wounded thousands of Israeli civilians.
The Fatah member was arrested by Israel in 2002 and convicted for the deaths of four Jews and a Greek monk, as well as for attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and membership in a terrorist organization.
The court said that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him on the 21 other murders in the original indictment.
Following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist invasion, Barghouti was transferred from Ofer Prison, near Ramallah, to Ayalon Prison in Ramla, after authorities learned that he intended to ignite a third intifada from his cell.
In January, Barghouti’s lawyer filed a complaint in an Israeli court about maltreatment. He protested that guards had handcuffed his legs and feet and forced him to walk, which hurt him.
He also complained about the food, which consisted of three small slices of bread, yogurt, two spoons of beans and three spoons of rice.
According to a survey conducted in December, if P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas were to resign, most Palestinians would prefer Barghouti to lead the organization (36%), followed by Hamas terrorists Ismail Haniyeh (19%) and Yahya Sinwar (16%).
In a presidential runoff between Barghouti and Haniyeh, the former would receive 51% of the vote and the latter 45%, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research said at the time.
