For more than two decades, Marwan Barghouti has been out of public sight — his image frozen in photographs from the early 2000s, when the Second Intifada made him one of Israel’s most wanted men and one of the most popular leaders among Palestinians. Now, a brief and unsettling video, just 13 seconds long, has thrust him back into the spotlight.
The footage, filmed inside an Israeli prison cell, shows the far-right Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, standing before Barghouti and addressing him directly. Barghouti, visibly aged and gaunt at 66, sits as Ben Gvir delivers his message in Hebrew: “You will not win. He who messes with the people of Israel, he who will murder our children, he who will murder our women, we will wipe him out.”
When Barghouti begins to respond, Ben Gvir cuts in, adding: “You need to know this, throughout history.” The clip ends there — no reply, no exchange beyond those few seconds.
The video first appeared on private messaging groups for Ben Gvir’s supporters before being reposted on the minister’s X account. If the goal was provocation, it succeeded. Palestinian officials have condemned the encounter, with the Palestinian Authority’s vice-president, Hussein al-Sheikh, calling it “the epitome of psychological, moral and physical terrorism.” Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, urged his supporters to circulate only a single still from the video — one she felt captured his strength rather than his frailty.
Barghouti’s imprisonment is central to his mythos. Convicted in 2004 of orchestrating attacks that killed five civilians, he is serving five life sentences plus 40 years. Israel has always viewed him as a mastermind of violence; many Palestinians, by contrast, regard him as a political leader and a potential unifier — the one figure capable of bridging the chasm between Fatah, which dominates the Palestinian Authority, and rival factions such as Hamas. Polls have long suggested he would win a presidential election over both Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leaders.
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That stature is precisely why his captivity is so politically charged. Barghouti was a senior Fatah figure during the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005, a period that saw some of the bloodiest years of the conflict. Israel has accused him of direct involvement in planning attacks; his supporters counter that he was a political leader targeted to weaken the Palestinian movement.
His conditions in prison have also been a matter of dispute. Palestinian prisoner rights groups say he has been in solitary confinement since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. Last year they accused Israeli guards of assaulting him in his cell — an allegation the prison service denied. The latest confrontation with Ben Gvir, they argue, is part of a broader effort to break his morale and diminish his symbolic power. Abdullah al-Zaghari, who heads the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, accused Israel of seeking “to eliminate him and assassinate the leaders languishing in its prisons.”
Barghouti’s name has surfaced in past hostage exchange talks, including discussions over the release of captives taken during the 7 October attacks. Hamas is believed to have pressed for his freedom as part of a deal, but Israeli officials have made clear that releasing him is highly unlikely.
For Ben Gvir, the video was not an embarrassment but a platform. After Palestinian officials condemned the remarks, he doubled down, promising to “repeat it again and again without apologising.” For Barghouti, it was an unexpected re-emergence into public view — one that reminded supporters of his enduring presence, even from behind bars. And for the Palestinian public, it revived an old question: whether the man in that cell might one day lead them, or whether his legacy will remain a story interrupted.