Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti's son urged US President Donald Trump to "seize the opportunity" created by the Gaza truce to secure his father's release and revive the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
Sometimes dubbed the "Mandela of Palestine" by his supporters, Marwan Barghouti, 66, was one of the leaders of the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s, and is often cited as a possible successor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
In June 2004, an Israeli court sentenced him to five life sentences after finding him guilty of involvement in four anti-Israeli attacks that killed five people.
But the heavy sentences have not diminished his popularity among Palestinians.
"He's capable and has the track record to unify the Palestinian people," Arab Barghouti told AFP in an interview on Sunday in English in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
"Someone like him represents a great opportunity for the international community to prove that they are serious about supporting the two-state solution."
Arab Barghouti's comments come after several countries -- including France, Britain and Canada -- formally recognized a Palestinian state last month.
He is the second member of the family to appeal to the US president to secure his father's release. Earlier this month, Marwan Barghouti's wife Fadwa also urged Trump to intervene.
Trump said in an interview with US magazine Time on October 15 that he would be "making a decision" on the matter, without specifying a timeline.
"I really hope he can do that, pressure the Israelis into releasing my father, because he is a partner for peace," Arab Barghouti said, adding that his family "really welcome" Trump's comment.
Though the two have not been allowed to speak in three years, Arab Barghouti said his father represents Palestinian unity and the best chance for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.
A longtime member of Abbas' Fatah party, Marwan Barghouti has consistently been re-elected to the party's central committee, including twice while in jail.
With his likeness painted on many walls in the occupied West Bank and, until recently, in Gaza, Marwan Barghouti is considered one of the few figures who could be accepted as a leader by all Palestinian political factions, including Hamas.
The movement, which violently pushed Fatah out of the Gaza Strip after winning the elections there in 2006, has nevertheless repeatedly called for Marwan Barghouti's release, including during ceasefire negotiations in Gaza.
According to a poll conducted last May by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), an independent institute in Ramallah, Marwan Barghouti would win if new Palestinian presidential elections were held, twenty years after Abbas came to power.
Marwan Barghouti continues to carry out his political responsibilities through his lawyer, whom he has seen five or six times over the past two years, which he has largely spent in solitary confinement, Arab Barghouti said.
"We have corruption issues that we need to address as Palestinians, and we need to be brave enough to look in the mirror and to take responsibility for our mistakes," Arab Barghouti said, speaking to AFP at a campaign office and calling for his father's release.
But with the war in Gaza ending, Western countries including the US "need to seize the opportunity of having a Palestinian leader who is well-respected and trusted and has the same vision that they have".
Israel has so far refused to release Marwan Barghouti including in any prisoner exchanges carried out since the Gaza war broke out after Hamas' unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
"The last few weeks have been very tough on us as a family because it's been a roller coaster" of emotions, Arab Barghouti said.
He added that released prisoners reported his father had been beaten during a prison transfer in September, sustaining severe injuries.
"Four of his ribs got broken, he got severe injuries in his head, and he lost consciousness," said Arab Barghouti.
In a video he shared on social media in August, Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was seen threatening a physically weak Marwan Barghouti in jail.
Asked whether his father might want to rest should he be released, Arab Barghouti said he did not foresee that happening.
"Knowing my father, I know that he will be playing an active role in stopping the suffering, the rebuilding of Gaza, helping the Palestinian people overall, because that's been his life mission," he said.
