Nael Barguty, the world’s longest political prisoner and “dean of the Palestinian detainees,” was released from Israeli prison after spending nearly two-thirds of his life behind bars.
The 67-year-old was released Thursday as part of a prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas.
According to the 2009 Guinness World Records, Barguuch spent 45 years including custody in Israel, including 34 years in a row, and has become the world’s longest serving political prisoner, including 34 years in a row.
Barghuti, known among Palestinian prisoners as “Abu al-Noor,” is the longest Palestinian prisoner in Israel.
He was released by Hamas in the 2011 Girad Shalit prisoner exchange and returned to reside in his hometown of Cobal, near Ramallah on the occupied West Bank.
New MEE Newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis
Israel and Palestine are unpacked by Türkiye and lined up with other MEE newsletters
However, in 2014, Israel re-arrested him, violating the terms of the contract and reinstated his previous life sentence.
This time, his family said that after Barguti’s release, he agreed to live in an exile on the Palestinian suburbs and granted certain freedoms from being re-arrested by Israel.
Occupation and resistance
Barghouti was born on October 23, 1957 in a Palestinian village in Cobar, north of Ramala, to a family of fighters involved in the movement against the British and Israeli occupations of Palestinians.
His father was detained by the British forces, and his uncle was killed during the Great Arab Rebellion in 1936.
At the age of 10, he witnessed an invasion of an Israeli village in 1967. It is the longest occupation in modern history, along with the rest of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
According to his sister, Hanan Barghuti, his journey of resistance to Israel’s occupation began that day.
From an early age, he was involved in throwing stones at the Israeli army and drawing birth slogans on the wall.
He joined brothers Omar and Cousin’s Fakri in the mid-1970s, targeting Israelis. He was first arrested in December 1977 and spent three months in prison.
A few months after his release, while preparing for his high school exam, he was arrested again by the Israeli army and spent the next 34 years in prison.
He was sentenced to life in prison for allegedly murdering an Israeli officer along with Omar and Fakri.
“Prisoner Dean”
In prison, Barguti has built a reputation among other detainees as an avid reader and history enthusiast.
He also learned Hebrew and English behind the bar.
He was called “Prisoner Dean” because of his seniority and popularity.
“They denied our freedom, but they didn’t kill our resolve to break our chains.”
-Nael Barghouti releases prisoner
According to media reports, he once smuggled lemon seeds into his mother and asked him to plant them in their garden as a way to connect him to his land.
During each family’s visit, he gave her water to the tree and gave it to the tree. Once it gave birth to fruit, his mother returned the lemon to him.
While in prison, he planned an attack on Israel in 1987 and decided to propose to Iman Nafi, a Palestinian woman who learned from a television report arrested for her release in 1997.
Barguti also undergoes political transformation while in prison.
A member of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement and more commonly known as Fatah, he switched allegiance to Hamas after Fatah-led Palestinian Liberation Agency (PLO) established relations with Israel and abandoned armed resistance.
During his imprisonment, Barguti lost both his parents without being allowed to say goodbye to them.
“Victory over the prison”
On October 18, 2011, he was released as part of the prisoner swap in Giradshalit and saw 1,047 Palestinians exchanged for Israeli soldiers who had been accused of Hamas in 2006.
Barghouti continued to study history at Al-Quds Open University.
A month after his release, he married Nafi, but he said he had no hesitation in agreeing to marry a “Palestinian hero.”
According to her, Barguti commemorated the marriage by saying it was “a different victory over prisons, a challenge to those who robbed us of our freedom, and a victory in the spirit of faith and hope.”
“They denied our freedom, but they didn’t kill our resolve to break our chains. Now I can say I’m embarking on a new journey as Iman and we are about to start yet another family in this great country.”
In previous releases, Bargouti and Nafi looked after the land and crops while remaining under house arrest for most of their time.
On June 18, 2014, he was arrested by Israeli forces in crackdowns in which dozens of other prisoners released in exchanges were detained.
He was sentenced to 30 months, but maintained Israeli custody beyond his service.
Shortly afterwards, Israeli authorities resurrected his previous life sentence, citing “secret files.”
His attorney filed several appeals and petitions against the decision, all of which were denied.
In late 2023, the Palestinian Prisoners Association reported that Barguti’s health had deteriorated in prison.
This decline occurred less than a month after he was transferred from Offer Prison to Gilbore Prison, where he endured serious assault and abuse.
Earlier this month, Nafi called her to make sure he was scheduled to be released, but only under the condition that he lives in exile, which is Israeli demand.
Media reports say he arrived in Egypt on Thursday after his release.
Nafi tells Mee that her happiness is incomplete as it prevented Israeli forces from leaving the occupied West Bank to reunite with him in Egypt.
“They told us that the ban was for security and political reasons. I don’t understand what that means, but there are dozens of families who have been prevented from traveling like me to meet released prisoners. I hope they allow us to do so soon,” she added.
