More than 200 cultural figures, including actors, writers, and musicians, have signed a petition calling for the release of Marwan Barghouti, a jailed Palestinian leader often likened by supporters to Nelson Mandela. Barghouti is serving five life sentences plus 40 years after an Israeli court convicted him in 2004 over deadly attacks during the Second Intifada; critics say portraying him chiefly as a political prisoner obscures his murder convictions and the victims of those attacks.
In recent weeks, over 200 prominent celebrities and cultural influencers have endorsed a campaign urging the release of Marwan Barghouti from Israeli prison. The "Free Marwan" initiative presents Barghouti as a symbol of Palestinian liberation and a potential unifying political figure, with supporters drawing parallels to Nelson Mandela's struggle against apartheid and casting his imprisonment as unjust.
Barghouti, a senior figure in the Fatah movement and former head of its Tanzim militia, was seized by Israeli forces in the West Bank in April 2002 and later tried in an Israeli civilian court. In May 2004, he was convicted on five counts of murder, attempted murder and membership and activity in a terrorist organization, and on June 6, 2004, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced him to five cumulative life terms plus an additional 40 years. Israeli court records and contemporaneous reporting state that the convictions related to attacks carried out during the Second Intifada in which five civilians were killed, including a Greek Orthodox monk, and to a failed car bombing, as well as his role in directing operations by armed groups linked to Fatah and the al‑Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Among the documented attacks for which Barghouti was found responsible, according to Israeli court findings, were several fatal shootings. Father Georgios Tsibouktzakis, a Greek Orthodox monk also known as Father Germanos, was killed in June 2001 while driving near St. George’s Monastery on the road to Ma’ale Adumim. In January 2002, 45‑year‑old Yoela Chen was fatally shot at a gas station near Giv’at Ze’ev. In March 2002, three people — Eli Dahan, 53, Yosef Habi, 52, and Police Officer Salim Barakat, 33, a Druze Israeli — were shot dead in an attack at Tel Aviv’s Seafood Market restaurant. Israeli authorities said Barghouti authorized and organized these attacks, though he denied the charges and refused to recognize the court’s legitimacy.
Supporters of the current campaign say Barghouti’s prolonged imprisonment, which has now exceeded two decades, exemplifies what they describe as a deeply flawed legal process and broader injustices under Israeli occupation. More than 200 writers, actors, musicians and other public figures, including high‑profile British and international artists, signed an open letter calling on the United Nations and governments worldwide to press for his release and have compared his case to Mandela’s, describing Barghouti as the "Palestinian Mandela."
The campaign’s narrative has, however, drawn criticism from commentators who argue that the celebrity appeal downplays or omits the details of Barghouti’s murder convictions and the lives of those killed in the attacks. In a recent opinion piece for The Daily Wire, Elicia Brand, founder and president of the advocacy group Army of Parents in Loudoun County, Virginia, contends that equating Barghouti with Mandela misleads the public. Brand writes that while Mandela came to be associated with reconciliation and rejected violence against civilians, Barghouti’s legacy, as reflected in Israeli court judgments, includes direct responsibility for civilian deaths.
Brand further argues that elevating Barghouti as a symbol of liberation risks perpetuating a cycle in which Palestinians are encouraged to rally around leaders tied to past militancy rather than to institution‑building and reform. She calls on celebrity signatories to reconsider their support, to acknowledge all victims of political violence — Israeli and Palestinian alike — and to back Palestinian figures focused on anti‑corruption, governance and civilian protection, rather than on armed struggle.
Debate over Barghouti’s future reflects a broader divide over strategies for Palestinian self‑determination and how cultural figures in the West should engage with one of the world’s most contentious conflicts. While his supporters argue his freedom is essential to any renewed peace process and see him as a unifying political leader, his critics insist that any discussion of his release must grapple with the court‑documented record of killings for which he was convicted and the families still mourning those deaths.
