Greg O'Loughlin

🚨 Israeli Guards Assault Marwan Barghouti Three Times in Two Weeks, Lawyer Says On the eve of the 24th anniversary of his imprisonment, the lawyer for Marwan Barghouti , Palestine’s most prominent political prisoner, reported three violent assaults against his client in the span of two weeks. Following a prison visit on April 12, lawyer Ben Marmarelli described the attacks: ▪️ April 8, Ganot Prison: Barghouti was severely beaten and left bleeding for more than two hours. He requested medical care and was denied. ▪️ March 25, transfer from Megiddo to Ganot: He was assaulted during the transfer between prisons. ▪️ March 24, Megiddo Prison: Guards entered his cell with a dog, forced him to the ground, and the dog attacked him repeatedly. “These recent attacks form a pattern of rapidly escalating abuse: violence, medical neglect and prolonged solitary confinement places my client at immediate risk of severe harm or death,” Marmarelli said. “The only way to protect Marwan is to secure his immediate release.” Barghouti’s son Arab said his father has been imprisoned “for believing in Palestinian freedom and a just peace,” adding: “There is no protection for him under this unhinged prison system overseen by Ben Gvir — a man who has publicly called for my father’s death.” The attacks come as UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese warned in a March 23 report to the Human Rights Council that torture has become “state doctrine” in Israel, saying the prison system has “degenerated into a laboratory of calculated cruelty” and that “what once operated in the shadows is now practiced openly.” Barghouti, widely referred to as the Palestinian Mandela, has been held since 2002 following a trial broadly condemned as violating international law.