LONDON: The son of renowned Palestinian politician Marwan Barghouti has demanded that the UK government make his release from Israeli prison a central part of its efforts to support a Palestinian state.
Arab Barghouti said his father’s freedom is essential to continue the political process after the UK announced that it would recognize a Palestinian state last year.
“Simply saying ‘we support a two-state solution’ without doing anything about it is deepening the problem, because you are just giving the Palestinian people false hopes,” Arab Barghouti said.
His intervention comes amid a campaign by British MPs from across the political spectrum to secure Marwan Barghouti’s release.
He has been in prison for 22 years after being convicted of five murders, but the UK’s Inter-Parliamentary Union found in an inquiry in 2003 that his trial failed to meet several fairness criteria.
