Fadwa Barghouti, wife of archterrorist Marwan Barghouti, has appealed directly to US President Donald Trump to intervene and help secure her husband’s release from Israeli prison, her son Arab told AFP.
Barghouti, 66, has been serving multiple life sentences since 2002 for orchestrating murderous attacks against Israelis.
He is widely believed to have planned the Second Intifada, which claimed thousands of Israeli lives from 2000 to 2005. Barghouti has continued inciting to terrorism from his jail cell.
Despite his convictions, he is viewed by many Palestinian Arabs as a unifying figure and potential future leader.
In a public statement, Fadwa Barghouti, a lawyer by profession, said, “Mr President, a genuine partner awaits you - one who can help fulfil the dream we share of just and lasting peace in the region. For the sake of freedom for the Palestinian people and peace for all future generations, help release Marwan Barghouti.”
President Trump, when asked by TIME Magazine on October 15 whether he would support Barghouti’s release, responded that he would be “making a decision” on the matter, without offering a timeline.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at a briefing in Israel on Friday, declined to elaborate. “I have nothing new to give you on this topic,” he said.
Barghouti is a senior member of Fatah and longtime rival of Hamas. He was reportedly among the terrorist prisoners Hamas sought to have released as part of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire deal, but was removed from the list at Israel’s insistence.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)