NEW YORK, August 19, 2025 (WAFA) - The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday condemned the threats made by the extremist, so-called Israeli Minister of ‘National Security’, Itamar Ben Gvir, against the imprisoned national leader Marwan Barghouthi, who has been held in detention since 2002.
Last Friday, Ben Gvir posted a video of himself on his account on X, threatening Marwan Barghouti after storming his cell in the Israeli Ramon prison.
“Video footage showing Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir berating and taunting Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouthi face-to-face inside an Israeli jail is unacceptable,” said Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Thameen Al-Kheetan.
“The minister's behaviour and the publication of the footage constitute an attack on Barghouthi’s dignity.”
He stressed that international law requires that all those in detention be treated humanely, with dignity, and their human rights respected and protected. “Such conduct by the minister responsible for the Israeli Prison Service may encourage violence against Palestinian detainees, enabling human rights violations in Israeli detention facilities.”
Marwan Barghouthi, born in 1959, is a member of the Central Committee of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement Fatah. He was detained by the Israeli occupation authorities during the Second Intifada in 2002 and was later sentenced to five life terms in prison.
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