Gaza demonstrators rally for Marwan Barghouti and other Palestinian prisoners after weekly sit-in (Picture: Joe Catron)
Marwan Barghouti “is the single most popular Palestinian leader alive”. These are the honest findings of director of the Palestinian centre for policy and research, Khalil Shikaki, who has polled Palestinians for more than two decades.
In a new documentary, Tomorrow’s Freedom, filmmakers Georgia and Sophia Scott try to reveal why Barghouti remains such a symbol of Palestinian resistance. The Israeli state has targeted Barghouti, who was one of the leaders during the First and Second
Intifadas and has held him captive for more than 22 years. The documentary details how Barghouti was one of seven children and grew up in the tiny West Bank village of Kobar.
As a teenager Barghouti led student movements as part of Fatah, the dominant faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). He remains on Fatah’s central committee to this day. Barghouti was arrested many times during his university years.
The Israelis deported him to Jordan during the First Intifada to prevent him from engaging in the uprising. Barghouti played a high-profile role as a protest organiser in the Second Intifada that began on 28 September 2000 until the Israeli state arrested him in 2002.
While Barghouti is a reminder of that resistance, he also showed how Palestinian politicians have capitulated to Zionists. In 2006 Barghouti became one of the authors of the Palestinian Prisoner Document, which recognised Israeli as a state.
While this document showed how Palestinian political factions would capitulate to the idea of a two state solution, it also showed unprecedented levels of unity between groups.
The documentary closely follows the Barghouti family over five years that cover the run up to the hunger strike in 2017 of at least 1,500 Palestinian prisoners and the situation after.
The viewer gets a close insight into the torment relatives of Palestinian political prisoners suffer every day. The filmmakers do a good job of highlighting the normal life his family tries to maintain in Marwan’s absence.
His wife Fadwa Ibrahim, herself a prominent advocate for Palestinian prisoners, leads the campaign for her husband’s release from Israeli prison.
The filmmakers document her journey to the prison and, after a 12-hour wait, returning to the bus, having been told to come back another time.
Viewers are struck by the heart-wrenching existence the family faces, which is a product of an apartheid system that tries to punish and humiliate Palestinians daily.
Bourghouti’s four children have had unimaginable lives filled with constant torment from the state. The film shows how his children defiantly build their lives. His son Sharaf details the month he spent in jail with his father.
Another one of his sons, Arab, meets with members of US-based activist group Dream Defenders—set up in response to the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin.
A December survey showed Marwan Barghouti 40 points ahead of the deeply unpopular current leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.
In the same poll he also beat Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh. Barghouti remains a threat to the Israeli state because of his commitment to a unified Palestinian resistance. Graffiti of Barghouti covers the border walls that surround Gaza.
In December last year a statement written by Barghouti called for all factions in the occupied West Bank to rise up and fight the Zionist occupation together.
Barghouti is sometimes characterised as a man of peace. But it is essential not to forget that he is a man who once stated, “Resistance is a holy right for the Palestinian people to face Israeli occupation.”
Tomorrow’s Freedom is in cinemas from 26 April
