Marwan Barghouti enters 22nd year in prison

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs announced on Friday that Marwan Barghouti had entered his 22nd year in Israeli prisons, Sama News Agency reported.

“Despite the long years in prison, Barghouti is still resilient and believes in freedom and the end of the Israeli occupation,” the commission stated.

The commission also shared that Barghouti: “Continues his resistance inside prison as he supervises educational programmes for all prisoners.”

Barghouti was born in 1959 in a neighbourhood east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. He was detained for the first time in 1976, then again in 1978 and 1983.

Following his release from prison in 1983, he started his university education and was elected head of the student council for three years at Birzeit University.

Barghouti was detained again in 1984 and 1985, subjected to harsh conditions and then released under house arrest.

In 1986, he was chased by Israel, consequently fleeing the country, and in 1989, he was elected a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council.

Barghouti returned to the West Bank in 1994 and was elected Fatah’s secretary. In 1996, he was elected as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). He was detained on 15 April, 2002, and re-elected a PLC member in 2006.

In 2004, Barghouti was sentenced to five life terms and 40 years in prison.

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