Veteran Palestinian prisoner: Israel’s prisons are ‘graveyards’ for living

Nael Barghouti, the world’s longest-serving political prisoner, has described the Israeli occupation’s prisons as “graveyards” and condemned the world’s “disgraceful” silence about the Palestinians’ endless suffering.

In a statement issued yesterday, 65-year-old Barghouti, who was freed in February as part of a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel, said the world’s overwhelming attention when it comes to the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza is shocking when compared to the complete disregard for the Palestinian families of the victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and for the daily violations committed against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

He described Israeli jails as “graveyards for the living”, where prisoners are subjected to daily torture, slow killing and violations of their human dignity in conditions unprecedented even in the darkest periods of history.

Barghouti, who spent 45 years in Israeli jails, called for urgent action to expose Israeli policies against prisoners, holding the international community responsible for its complicity in these crimes.