Israeli far-right minister confronts prominent Palestinian inmate
Marwan Barghouti, a leading member of the Palestinian Fatah party, has spent more than 20 years behind bars after being sentenced for his role in anti-Israeli attacks in the early 2000s. In the clip published by Ben Gvir on X, the minister and two other individuals, including a prison guard, surround Barghouti in a corner of his cell.
"You will not defeat us. Whoever harms the people of Israel, whoever kills children, whoever kills women... we will erase them," Ben Gvir says in Hebrew. Barghouti tries to respond but is interrupted by Ben Gvir, who says: "No, you know this. And it's been the case throughout history."
The video does not specify where Barghouti is currently being held. Contacted by AFP, sources close to Ben Gvir said the meeting took place "by chance" in Ganot prison in southern Israel during an inspection visit by the minister, but they would not say when the footage was filmed.
"This morning I read that various 'senior officials' in the Palestinian Authority didn't quite like what I said to arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti -- may his name be erased," Ben Gvir said in the post accompanying the video on Friday morning.
"So I will repeat it again and again, without apology: whoever messes with the people of Israel, whoever murders our children, whoever murders our women -- we will wipe them out. With God's help." Barghouti, who is now in his sixties, was arrested in 2002 by Israel and sentenced to life in 2004 on murder charges.
Israel considers him a "terrorist" and convicted him over his role in the second intifada, or uprising, from 2000-2005.
He often tops opinion polls of popular Palestinian leaders and is sometimes described by his supporters as the "Palestinian Mandela". In a statement released by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry denounced the confrontation as "an unprecedented provocation".
Responding to the video in a post on X, the Palestinian mission to the United Nations said Barghouti was "enduring extremely harsh humanitarian conditions in his solitary confinement cell". It added that he had "lost more than half his weight due to deliberate medical neglect and mistreatment".
"At the same time, extremist Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir continues to directly threaten him in an attempt to break his will and resilience."
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's political bureau, expressed solidarity with Barghouti and said "there is no meaning of savagery left that has not been embodied by" Ben Gvir.
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