Given Israel’s new death penalty legislation, adopted on March 30, 2026, there is increasing concern for the fate of Palestinian political leader, Marwan Barghouti, who has been imprisoned for 24 years.
Marwan Barghouti is widely recognised as a potentially unifying figure in Palestinian politics, affiliated with neither Hamas nor the PA (Palestinian Authority), but respected by Palestinians everywhere. He is a proponent of political solutions to the problems of the region, including advocating for a two state solution.
Even while in prison, where he has suffered abuse and torture, Barghouti has continued his political contributions, and organised education for his fellow inmates, and led a prison hunger strike to secure increased visitation rights. Many refer to him as the “Palestinian Nelson Mandela.”
Barghouti was imprisoned by Israel after charged with being connected to attacks that lead to the death of five people. The legitimacy of his trial have been questioned due to the poor quality of evidence.
Shortly after the attacks of October 7th, he was threatened by far-right minister Itmar Ben-Gvir, and was subsequently beaten unconscious by eight guards. He has been severely beaten several times more since then, and is suffering damage to his health. Thankfully, it looks like the Israel’s new death penalty could not be applied to Barghouti in its current form, since his conviction predates the new law.
But it could simply be a matter of time before it is expanded to be applicable. There is already talk of adopting new legislation to allow retro-active death penalties to be applied to participants of the October 7th attacks.
Regardless of any new legislation, there is reason to worry for his safety. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons, since Oct 7th, 2023.
North Shore For Palestine has officially declared its support for the movement to free Marwan Barghouti. You can personally help by spreading word about his case, and visiting the freemarwan.org website. Use the “Take Action” button to fill in the form that will instruct you on how to send a letter to your MP, and how to further help by tracking the response to your letter. If you need to cite documentation for the unfairness of the trial, you can use https://tinyurl.com/m-b-trial .
If you are a resident of Canada, we request that in addition to your own MP, you reach out to all the MPs that represent the three ridings of Vancouver’s North Shore (Terry Beech, Patrick Weiler, and Jonathan Wilkinson).