More than twenty years have passed since Marwan Barghouti, one of Palestine’s most respected national leaders, was seized by Israeli forces and sentenced to life imprisonment.
His “crime” was not terrorism, as Israel’s courts declared — it was daring to represent what every system of oppression fears most: a unifying, legitimate, and popular voice for liberation and peace.
Born in 1959 in the West Bank village of Kobar, Barghouti grew up under the shadow of military rule. As a teenager, he joined Fatah, the leading movement of the Palestinian national struggle, and quickly distinguished himself through his discipline, intellect, and commitment to mass organizing.
He was arrested for the first time at just 15 years old for his activism. After completing his secondary studies, he earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Birzeit University, where he later obtained a master’s degree in international relations. At Birzeit, he became a key organizer of the student movement, known for his ability to unite students across ideological lines.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Barghouti played a central role in the First Intifada and later he helped establish the Tanzim movement, a grassroots structure within Fatah that emphasized community mobilization and resistance grounded in popular participation.
Barghouti has always linked the national struggle for liberation with the social struggle for equality. His politics are rooted in the conviction that Palestine’s freedom cannot be separated from democracy, social justice and workers’ rights.
Despite enduring years of imprisonment, Barghouti has never abandoned his belief in coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis, provided it is based on equality and mutual respect.
He was one of the earliest Palestinian leaders to publicly endorse the two-state solution, calling for the establishment of an independent State of Palestine alongside Israel, based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as a shared capital. But unlike the sterile diplomacy of elites, his vision of peace is grounded in justice — in ending occupation, dismantling segregation, and securing the right of return and self-determination for all Palestinians.
The Israeli state brands Barghouti a "terrorist". Yet among Palestinians and progressive forces globally, he is regarded as a freedom fighter, a moral leader, and a symbol of perseverance.
Even from his cell, he continues to command broad respect across political divisions — from Fatah to Hamas, from secular intellectuals to grassroots organizers. In a landscape fractured by internal rivalry and external pressure, Barghouti remains a rare unifying figure.
The comparison to Nelson Mandela is more than symbolic. Both men were imprisoned by systems of racial segregation and dispossession. Both advocated dialogue grounded in equality, not submission. And both inspired their people to hold fast to hope in the darkest of times.
Mandela’s release marked the beginning of South Africa’s democratic renewal. The release of Marwan Barghouti could play a similar historic role — reviving Palestinian leadership, restoring legitimacy, and rekindling the vision of a just and peaceful future.
Barghouti is more than a prisoner of conscience. He is the most credible candidate to lead a future independent and sovereign State of Palestine — a man who combines revolutionary credentials with democratic conviction, integrity, and political experience.
Polls consistently show that he enjoys wide support among Palestinians of all backgrounds. His leadership is rooted not in factionalism or corruption, but in a lifetime of service, sacrifice, and intellectual engagement. He represents the kind of leadership capable of rebuilding the Palestinian political system on principles of accountability, social justice, and unity.
A free Marwan Barghouti could help guide the Palestinian people through the transition to genuine independence — a state built by the people, for the people, and in peace with its neighbors.
For communists and progressives, the Palestinian struggle is inseparable from the global fight against exploitation and oppression. The occupation of Palestinian land persists through systems of militarization, economic dependency, and imperial support — the same forces that sustain inequality and war across the globe.
To demand Barghouti’s release is to stand against those structures. It is to declare that no people’s right to freedom can be indefinitely imprisoned, and that genuine peace must rest on justice.
The world once united to free Nelson Mandela. Today, it must do the same for Marwan Barghouti. Trade unions, leftist parties, and solidarity movements should raise their voices together:
Free Marwan Barghouti. Free all Palestinian political prisoners. Let the Palestinian people determine their own destiny.
Barghouti’s freedom would not just return a leader to his nation — it would return hope to millions. Because, as history teaches us again and again, you can imprison a revolutionary, but never the revolution.
* Nikos Mottas is the Editor-in-Chief of In Defense of Communism.
