Marwan Barghouti
Marwan BarghoutiFlash 90

Arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for killing Israelis in numerous terror attacks, was given a disciplinary “slap on the wrist” for his latest exploit – an article written by him from his Israeli prison cell that appeared in the British Guardian newspaper last week, in which he provided rationalization for Palestinian knifing and murder terror attacks against Jews.

At the hearing, Barghouti denied that he had given an interview or that he had provided the Guardian with the article.

“The real problem is that Israel has chosen occupation over peace, and used negotiations as a smokescreen to advance its colonial project,” wrote Barghouti.

“Every government across the globe knows this simple fact and yet so many of them pretend that returning to the failed recipes of the past could achieve freedom and peace... We cannot coexist with the occupation, and we will not surrender to it,” Barghouti stated, among other things, without mentioning the incitement to destroy Israel and kill Jews that has typified “this new Palestinian generation [that] has not awaited reconciliation talks to embody a national unity that political parties have failed to achieve, but has risen above political divides and geographic fragmentation.”

Barghouti, 56, was sentenced to five life sentences in 2002 after being convicted of multiple murder and attempted murder charges for attacks carried out by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades on Israeli civilians and soldiers during the Second Intifada. He is considered one of the founders of "Tanzim," one of Fatah's armed terrorist factions, and has continued to exert great influence within the party even from prison. 

The Honenu legal rights group filed a complaint with the Israel Prisons Service over the article. In response, the Service said that it would try Barghouti for violating the terms of his imprisonment, but at the end of the process he was merely served with a disciplinary report and warned not to do it again.

Honenu attorney Doron Ben-Nir said that the situation was “absurd, in that a top security prisoner got off with just a warning.” Ben-Nir said that he would pursue a more “realistic” punishment against Barghouti for the breach.