One of Palestine’s most respected and unifying leaders, Marwan Barghouthi, has spent over 20 years in Israeli jails. But Marwan has remained resilient in his efforts to push freedom and peace forward, even after being put in solitary confinement for years. He has crafted the prisoners' document for national reconciliation outlining a Palestinian strategy to achieve unity, freedom and peace. As the situation of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons continues to deteriorate, occupation and colonisation continue unabated and cracks in Palestinian politics widen, Marwan's role is needed more than ever.


The international call for the freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and the Palestinian prisoners, including democratically elected parliamentarians, has reached an unprecedented level. An international campaign for the freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and all Palestinian prisoners was launched in 2013 by anti-apartheid icon Ahmed Kathrada from the cell of Nelson Mandela. 8 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, international political figures, former Heads of States and Governments, parliamentarians from all around the world, artists and intellectuals, academics and human rights organizations have since signed the Robben Island Declaration for the Freedom of Marwan and all Palestinian prisoners and 115 governments around the world have endorsed it. 


This campaign culminated with the nomination of Marwan for the Nobel Peace Prize. Marwan was nominated 6 times this year including by 2 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, leading Belgian parliamentarians, the Arab Parliament, the Speaker of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Speaker of the Palestinian National Council.


But the Nobel Peace Prize committee will likely ignore Marwan’s struggles and the plight of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, including hundreds of children, unless thousands of us support the nomination of Palestine’s most prominent living symbol, Marwan Barghouthi, for the Nobel Peace Prize. 


Sign the petition now, and once we reach 100,000 signatures, Marwan Barghouthi’s brave wife and human rights defender, Fadwa, along with a delegation of released Palestinian prisoners and internationally renowned former political prisoners will deliver it directly to the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo. 


Excerpts from the Robben Island Declaration for the freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and all Palestinian prisoners:

The Palestinian people have been struggling for decades for justice and the realisation of their inalienable rights... The realisation of these rights entails the release of Marwan Barghouthi and all Palestinian political prisoners whose on-going captivity is a reflection of the decades-long deprivation of freedom that the Palestinian people have, and continues, to endure. Over 850 000 Palestinians have been imprisoned at some point in their lives since 1967, in one of the most striking examples of mass detention aiming at destroying the national and social fabric of the occupied people, and to break its will to achieve freedom.

Among these prisoners, a name has emerged, both nationally and internationally, as central for unity, freedom and peace...As international efforts led to the release of Nelson Mandela and of all the anti-apartheid prisoners, we believe that the international community must help to secure the freedom of Marwan Barghouthi and all Palestinian prisoners, as an integral part of its moral, legal and political responsibility to assist the Palestinian people in the realization of their rights.

One of the most important indicators of the readiness to make peace with your adversary is the release of all political prisoners, a powerful signal of the recognition of a people’s rights and just demands for freedom. Occupation and peace are incompatible. Freedom must prevail for the conflict to end and for the peoples of the region to live in peace and security.