Trump’s Path to a (Real) Nobel: Press Israel to Free Marwan Barghouti
President Trump’s Board of Peace and plans for Gaza and Israel/Palestine won’t bring peace or garner him his coveted Nobel Peace Prize. But freeing one Palestinian from Israeli prison could possibly achieve these goals. Marwan Barghouti has sat in an Israeli prison since 2004, serving five life sentences plus 40 years. Fadwa Barghouti, his wife, along with her youngest son Arab, granted me their first recent interview with an American journalist on my recent trip to the region just after the New Year.
While the Barghouti family has never engaged with Trump or any members of his administration, the president has mentioned Barghouti’s name several times recently, most likely after mentions of him by French President Emmanuel Macron and the Saudi leadership.
I met them in their modest Ramallah apartment, where I’ve visited them for the past three winters. Fadwa is a lawyer, who gave up her own practice to work full-time for her husband’s release. She is active in Fatah, a strong feminist, and a founder of Fatah’s Union for Women’s Rights. Arab, 35, is the youngest of four children. Previously, we spoke on background because the family feared for Marwan’s safety in prison. Now, that same concern makes them speak out. (I have been writing about him since 2006, most recently in this magazine in 2024.) For a family that lives in fear for Marwan Barghouti’s life since his incarceration, both Fadwa and Arab emit a hope that stands in contrast to the extraordinary anger and hatred that has captured the region and the world since October 7, 2023.
They are rightly concerned about the cavalier way that the Netanyahu government is treating this prized prisoner with National Security Minister and longtime Kahanist Itamar Ben Gvir running the prisons. Ben Givr recently posted a video of himself threatening a visibly gaunt Barghouti in prison, followed by a post on X wishing for Marwan’s “execution.” An untraceable phone caller claiming to have been in prison with Barghouti called Fadwa to say her husband’s ear was cut and his teeth knocked out. Their Israeli lawyer visited the prison at the end of December, confirming this was a lie. (His wife has not been allowed to see him for three years; his children or grandchildren even longer.)
Marwan, a Fatah leader presently held in the notorious Megiddo Prison in Israel, was convicted by Israeli court in 2004 for his leadership role in terrorist attacks against Israelis during the second Palestinian intifada. Marwan and his family deny the charges and didn’t recognize the court proceedings. Since October 7, he’s been moved several times and kept in solitary confinement, in conditions that the Association for Civil Rights Israel has argued violate international laws.
This is a political incarceration. Barghouti, almost without dispute, is the only potential candidate for president of a future Palestine who could beat both a Hamas leader and PA President Mahmoud Abbas or any potential Palestinian Authority leader since the PA is deeply unpopular. Khalil Shikaki, the Palestinian pollster, this past October found that in a race between Barghouti and Khalid Mishal of Hamas, the vote would be 58-39 Barghouti.
Barghouti forged ties with the Israeli peace camp for years. When he took over the reins of the popular Fatah uprising in 2000, he was a young and incorruptible alternative to Arafat. As the uprising spiraled, and as spokesperson for the intifada, he became a wanted man by the Israeli government led by hardline Ariel Sharon.
Six months before his arrest, the IDF raided the Barghouti home, remaining for three days. “They quarantined me and my children. in a small room in the house,” Fadwa recalled. “They put the Israeli flag on our balcony. And after that, Marwan stopped visiting us.”
His son added: “We used to go to demonstrations to be able to see him, just for a few minutes.”
Fadwa last saw Marwan under the cloak of secrecy near Ramallah for the last time on March 28th, 2002, 17 days before his capture. “He advised me that either he will be arrested or killed,” she said. “I told him, ‘God willing, you will be arrested and not killed because at least we will be able to come and visit and I can tell you that our children have finished university, our children got married, and so on.’”
Meanwhile, the family prepared for what they thought would be a short internment. “As a lawyer, not just as his wife,” Fadwa told me, she didn’t expect his sentence to be so harsh. “I thought it’s going to be five years, maximum ten. We never expected in our worst nightmare that it would be like this. We knew that he was never involved in actual operations and violence. He never denied his role as the spokesman for the intifada, calling for the people to demonstrate, to resist the occupation, and he even supported resistance in Palestinian territories according to international law. “
The trial, which lasted for almost two years, was of course major Israeli news. Then Prime Minister Sharon took a daily personal interest. At the end of the trial, Barghouti flashed a victory sign with his fingers which was seen around the world as a symbol of the Palestinian struggle.
Fadwa recalled why her husband staged that photo. “He told me that despite body pain from the long trial, he forced himself to raise his arms in a victorious salute, which flashed across screens everywhere.”
Barghouti has been at the top of all the prisoner exchange requests from Hamas since October 7, Israel never acquiesced. There seems to be truth to his son Arab’s speculation: “In the last 14 years, 800 Palestinians detainees have been freed by the Israelis, very complicated security cases, according to the Israeli courts. Yet they keep excluding Marwan. We need to ask ourselves why. Not because he’s a security threat, obviously, but because he’s a political threat.”
Fadwa, too, is convinced that “it’s because he believes in coexistence. It’s because he has a track record of meeting with Israelis, of being a moderate, and listening to them, and makes it public.”
Arab also makes his father’s case: “Why is he that effective as a leader? He’s a unifying figure… something that we lack in Palestinian politics. [Israel] is happy with the status quo, which is scattered Palestinians: Hamas ruling Gaza, the PA very weak ruling the West Bank, Jerusalemites on their own, the Palestinians in Israel on their own, the diaspora and so on.
“The second reason is his popularity gives him legitimacy from the people and not from the Israeli government. or even from the international community. And that’s something that we Palestinians really appreciate. There’s nobody else here who can do that.
“And the third thing, which he believes is why the Israeli government insists on not releasing him, is he believes in coexistence. He has a track record of meeting with Israelis, of being a moderate. He still makes it public that he believes in the two-state solution, and he doesn’t lose that popularity. But the Israeli government is not interested in any peace process, even if it’s going to bring stability, because stability is not their incentive or motivation. Their motivation is full domination on the land.”
Arab’s message to supporters of Palestinian freedom is especially striking in his compassion. “We don’t want people to be pro-Palestinian. We want them to be pro-justice. And for them to be pro-justice, we must look at how we can come up with better solutions.”
After leaving Ramallah, I visited Ami Ayalon at his home in central Israel. Now 80, Ayalon is a former Shin Bet leader (2000-2005), a former admiral of the Israeli Navy, and a former Labor Party politician. He is part of a small cohort of previous security and military leaders who are outspoken against Netanyahu’s government, including its conduct during the war against Hamas. Ayalon was a featured speaker at the regular Saturday night Tel Aviv demonstrations against Netanyahu in early January. For the last several decades, Ayalon has been a forthright promoter of justice for the Palestinians as a way to secure Israel.
Ayalon insists that Marwan Barghouti be freed from prison, and that if Palestinians elections are allowed, a victorious Barghouti will attempt to negotiate a sustainable future for both Palestinians and Israelis. To answer critics who say that Barghouti has “blood on his hands,” Ayalon says: “When we say somebody has blood on his hands, what do we mean? I have blood on my hands. I killed many people. I’m not proud of it, but this is why you send soldiers and warriors to the battlefield, not to negotiate. If you want to negotiate, you send diplomats.
“I’m saying it as a director of the Shin Bet: Marwan himself did not kill anybody, personally. But yes, he was a commander. So when we say blood on his hands, yes, he commanded.” That’s why he was arrested. But today, Ayalon says, Barghouti is no longer in prison because of any acts he may have committed: “If you ask me today, why is he in prison? Because in the eyes of the Palestinians, he is the only alternative. He became a symbol.”
Indeed, Ayalon’s arguments echoed what Barghouti’s son told me regarding the political reason for Marwan’s continued imprisonment. The former Israeli warrior concurs with Fadwa Barghouti about the causes of the Second Intifada, and the emergence of Marwan’s leadership: “The second Intifada was a popular uprising against the reality.
“Palestinians see [and saw] more settlements, more security, more soldiers, etc. Arafat’s administration was totally corrupt, and the Palestinians saw it.” Barghouti has always been respected by Palestinians because he is seen as uncorrupted, unlike Arafat and Palestinian Authority leaders today. Ayalon described how Arafat latched onto Marwan Barghouti because of Arafat’s vulnerabilities. “Marwan was second to Arafat. And we know that Marwan gave orders to lead terror. In the eyes of the Palestinians, this was a war of independence. In the eyes of the Israelis, it was pure terror. This is why he was arrested and tried. “
Ayalon told me that in his view, there are two types of people left among Israelis and Palestinians: messianists and pragmatists. A pragmatist himself, he includes Barghouti in that sphere and therefore hopes for his freedom. Ayalon hopes too, that a post-Netanyahu government could be pragmatic.
“The future of the Middle East will be decided between MBS [Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman] and Trump. These are the two people who can shape the future of the Middle East,” Ayalon told me.
Though the Barghouti family isn’t in touch with the current White House (they previously engaged with the State Department and other U.S. officials), they are in frequent contact with the Saudis, Egypt, the EU, France, and the UK, all of whom want to play critical mediating roles. It’s likely that one of these country’s leaders is whispering Marwan’s name in Trump’s ear, because he has mentioned Barghouti several times in recent interviews. Meanwhile, the family is building an international campaign of support that most recently was endorsed by Bono, The Elders (the peace and justice campaign founded by Nelson Mandela), and hundreds of celebrities.
Celebrities won’t free Barghouti, but they are keeping his name in the spotlight. In this Israeli election year, it’s hard to imagine Netanyahu releasing him, even with pressure from Trump. However, a new Israeli prime minister—if he is a pragmatist too—could be guided by security recommendations that point to a different political agenda. The United States and Saudi Arabia hold keys that could unlock prison for Barghouti, giving Palestinians—and Israelis—a chance for livable and reconcilable futures. And, then, too, maybe Trump could actually earn that Nobel Prize.