Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has faced sharp condemnation after releasing video footage of himself taunting the imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti.
The 13-second clip, posted by Ben-Gvir, shows him making threatening remarks to Barghouti during a visit to Ganot prison in central Israel. Standing alongside him was Israel’s prisons minister, Kobi Yaakobi, a political ally.
Barghouti, 66, jailed in 2002 for his role in planning killings during the second Intifada, appears gaunt and frail after years in solitary confinement. The footage, the first images of him in a decade, shows him attempting to speak before Ben-Gvir interrupts.
“You won’t win,” Ben-Gvir tells him. “Whoever messes with the nation of Israel, whoever murders our children and women, we will wipe them out. You should know this, throughout history.”
Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician sanctioned this year by the UK and several other countries for incitement to violence against Palestinians, was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organisation. His visit was described by Israeli officials as part of a policy to tighten conditions for Palestinian prisoners, though the release of the video has raised questions about its true purpose.
Barghouti, a senior figure in Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, remains highly popular in the West Bank and Gaza, and is regarded by many Palestinians as a potential unifying leader. Calls for his release have been a longstanding demand in Palestinian negotiations, but Israel has consistently refused.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned Ben-Gvir’s conduct as “organised state terrorism”, while Hussein al-Sheikh, vice-president of the Palestinian Authority, called it “the epitome of psychological, moral and physical terrorism”.
PPS alleges assault by Israeli prison officers
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society has alleged that Barghouti has been assaulted by Israeli prison officers, a claim denied by Israel.
Ben-Gvir’s actions follow similar remarks earlier this week by fellow far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich, who vowed to “bury” the prospect of Palestinian statehood while announcing plans for extensive illegal settlement expansion.
