Ben-Gvir spoke to Palestinian leader Barghouti as a master speaks to his slave
Ben-Gvir spoke to Palestinian leader Barghouti as a master speaks to his slave
Gideon Levy

Ben-Gvir spoke to Palestinian leader Barghouti as a master speaks to his slave

They stood facing each other – the fat man and the thin man, the strong and the weak, the oppressor and the oppressed, the conqueror and the conquered, the perpetrator of injustice facing his victim, the wicked against the righteous, in an image that said it all.

The video shared on social media was 13 seconds long. Only the strong man spoke. When his victim tried to speak, the video ended. The first time I watched it, I had no idea who the man standing before Itamar Ben-Gvir — or, should I say, at his feet — was.

Only after reading the post did it dawn on me that the man facing the national security minister was Marwan Barghouti. I doubt I would have recognised him had I met him. This isn’t the Marwan I knew; these are his remains. Hostage Evyatar David, whose appearance shocked the whole country, didn’t appear to be in significantly worse physical condition.

Pale and emaciated. A starving shell of a man, in a thin and tattered undershirt. This is the first image of Barghouti published since we saw him in a brown Israel Prison Service uniform in the Tel Aviv District Court. That was 21 years ago, but his horrific appearance reflected not only the ravages of time but also evidence of the sadism toward Palestinian prisoners in Israel over the past two years.

It was apparent from Ben-Gvir’s behaviour that he was proud of the results of his policy, in the form of the broken man who stood before him. Ben-Gvir’s base loves shattered Palestinian heroes, preferably dead. It’s good for morale. Ben-Gvir spoke to Barghouti as a master speaks to his slave. My heart broke.

On Land Day in 1997, as he drove us through burning tires in Ramallah, Barghouti said to me, “My biggest fear is that we will lose hope.” Well, it happened. I lost hope; perhaps Barghouti did as well. The last chance for a Palestinian leadership that could bring about an arrangement with Israel was crushed in Ganot Prison. Ben-Gvir won, and his victory is total.

“Whoever messes with the nation of Israel, whoever murders our children and women, we will wipe them out,” said the victor, a senior member of a bullying government whose hands are stained with the blood of tens of thousands of women and children. Barghouti tried answering, but his voice was silenced. It’s said he tried to say something about the need for a political settlement.

They stood opposite one another. A senior minister in my country’s government, facing the leader of the nation that is supposed to be my enemy – and my heart is fully with the latter. In the choice between Ben-Gvir and Barghouti, Barghouti is absolutely superior by every measure.

Of the two, he is the man of peace and justice – despite having been convicted of five counts of murder. Both men have been convicted on terror charges, but Barghouti represents a nation without an army, a state or any national rights. He, therefore, turned to the path of terror after tirelessly trying the path of diplomacy. Ben-Gvir is a cabinet minister of a state that has an unrestrained army, and he represents a nation that is the supreme nation in this land – in Ben-Gvir’s eyes, the only nation.

Based on my long years of acquaintance with Barghouti, I permit myself to state unequivocally that Ben-Gvir hates Palestinians much more than Barghouti hates the Israelis who inflicted all these injustices on him and his people. Barghouti dedicated a large part of his life to finding a bridge to the hearts of Israelis.

Ben-Gvir has scorned any such possibility and done everything possible to sabotage it. Ben-Gvir wants to destroy the Arabs or, at the very least, expel them from their land. The Barghouti I knew wanted with all his heart for Israelis and Palestinians to live together, in equitable and just conditions, of course.

Looking at him, I was reminded of the figure of Adolf Eichmann in the yard of an Israeli prison. Ben-Gvir would surely love the comparison; in the eyes of the Ben-Gvirs, Barghouti is Eichmann. How proud Israel was then that it humanely incarcerated the despot, did not humiliate him, nor starve him with such cruelty. How much we have changed since then.

 

Republished from Haaretz, 20 August 2025

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.

Gideon Levy

Gideon Levy is a Haaretz columnist and a member of the newspaper’s editorial board. Levy joined Haaretz in 1982, and spent four years as the newspaper’s deputy editor. He was the recipient of the Euro-Med Journalist Prize for 2008; the Leipzig Freedom Prize in 2001; the Israeli Journalists’ Union Prize in 1997; and The Association of Human Rights in Israel Award for 1996. His new book, The Punishment of Gaza, has just been published by Verso.