Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | 'They will never break his spirit'

		1 - 7 August 2002 Issue No. 597 Region	Current issue Previous issue Site map
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'They will never break his spirit'
The wife of jailed Fatah leader, Marwan Barghouti, is urging supporters of the Palestinian cause to use her husband's trial to expose the horrors of Israel's 35-year-long occupation, reports Khaled Dawoud

Since Israel's occupation army arrested prominent Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti in Ramallah nearly four months ago, his wife, Fadwa Ibrahim has been touring the world, calling for her husband's release and protesting against his inhumane jail conditions.
On Saturday, Ibrahim came to Cairo in response to an invitation issued by the Press Syndicate and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), and emphasised that in touring the world's capitals she was seeking more than the release of her husband. "Let's use this opportunity [Barghouti's incarceration] to demand the release of more than 8,000 Palestinians who have been held illegally by Israel" since late March when it reoccupied the entire West Bank in its operation code-named "Protective Shield".
Ibrahim did not need to rally her audience for support, as one speaker after another praised Barghouti, his resolve to fight the occupation and his involvement in grass-roots efforts towards achieving the Palestinians' national rights.
"I am coming to you from Palestine which has been under siege and a stringent curfew for months. I had to cross mountains and take unpaved roads in order to be with you here. But when I saw how you support the Palestinian people and their legitimate struggle, I felt as though I had been relieved of all of the suffering and pain."
Ibrahim said that she has visited her husband only once, last week, in the almost 100 days since he was taken into custody by Israel. During his incarceration, Barghouti has been interrogated by Israeli security services who subjected him to severe psychological pressure and sleep deprivation. "He was allowed to sleep for only two hours each day, while being seated on a chair -- chained and unable to move," she told her audience. "But they will never break his spirit, and during his interrogation he repeatedly said that the Palestinians have the right to resist the occupation, and that this right is guaranteed by all human rights conventions."
The stalwart wife and mother of three said that after Israel failed to obtain a confession from Barghouti "they decided to refer him to a criminal court. We must turn his trial into a political trial of the oppressive occupation. It must be a trial in which the entire Palestinian people, with all their martyrs, wounded and detainees, stand up to demand the trial of the war criminals among the leaders and generals of Israel's governments.
Khedr Shekeirat, one of Barghouti's lawyers, who has been accompanying Ibrahim on her tour, said that by arresting Barghouti, "Israel wanted to claim that the Intifada had ended and that the Palestinian people are in real trouble. But the reality is that we [Palestinians] have never been closer to winning our demands."
Shekeirat added that after Israel failed to obtain a confession from Barghouti, and his persistence in asserting the Palestinian people's right to resist, "they [Israeli interrogators] told him that the occupation will end, but he will never be released. His answer was: 'you can keep me in prison forever, if that is the price for the liberation of my people'."
Shekeirat added that he expected Israel to try to turn Barghouti's trial, due to begin sometime in September, "into a trial of the Palestinian people, accusing them and their leadership, including the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat, of terrorism." Therefore, the Palestinian lawyer said, "we must step up our solidarity campaigns with Marwan, and seek to broaden the support for our cause."
In this respect, Shekeirat said he plans to visit South Africa and meet with its former president and veteran freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela, to seek his support. South Africa and Mandela are known to support the Palestinian cause, on the basis of the similarities between Apartheid and the Israeli occupation.

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