by Stephen Lendman

Marwan Barghouti is a political prisoner, unjustly convicted in a show trial, sentenced by Israel to multiple life sentences - not for involvement in crimes, for his activism and prominence.

He was Palestine’s most popular politician, a political leader Israel feared, a shoe-in for president if he ran in 2005. Israel wanted Abbas installed, a reliable longtime collaborator.

Barghouti strongly supports Palestinian sovereign independence, free from illegal Israeli occupation and urges legal action to end it.

He manages to get his writing published, including his secretly written book titled “One Thousand Nights in Solitude” detailing his harsh treatment - smuggled out of prison page by page.

London’s Guardian published his latest commentary, discussing ongoing Israeli-instigated violence. “There will be no peace until Israel’s occupation of Palestine ends,” he stressed! “The current escalation” began long ago. It’s been ongoing for decades, a repressive occupying power brutalizing a defenseless population.

“Every day Palestinians are killed, wounded, arrested,” Barghouti explained. “Every day colonialism advances, the siege on our people in Gaza continues, oppression persists.”

“As many today want us to be overwhelmed by the potential consequences of a new spiral of violence, I will plead, as I did in 2002, to deal with its root causes: the denial of Palestinian freedom.”

This explains things far better than Western and Israeli media, especially in America. The Guardian publishing his commentary is the exception proving the rule.

Israeli support is overwhelming, one-sided, hugely biased. More on this below. Peace is impossible because Israel rejects it, Barghouti explained -

“us(ing) negotiations as a smokescreen to advance its colonial project.”

“Every government across the globe knows this simple fact and yet so many of them pretend that returning to the failed recipes of the past could achieve freedom and peace. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

“There can be no negotiations without a clear Israeli commitment to fully withdraw from the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem; a complete end to all colonial policies; a recognition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people including their right to self-determination and return; and the release of all Palestinian prisoners. We cannot coexist with the occupation, and we will not surrender to it.”

Views this strong and Barghouti’s overwhelming popularity got him imprisoned for life - given multiple life sentences for crimes he didn’t commit.

Israeli oppression of Palestinians has been ongoing for nearly 70 years - today worse than ever since the Nakba. It never ended, now raging throughout Occupied Palestine.

Palestinians are being murdered in cold blood, brutalized in plain sight for the whole world to see, a people armed with stones and a will to live free against a powerful rogue state waging war without rules or mercy.

“(I)n the absence of international action to end Israeli occupation and impunity or even provide protection, what are we asked to do,” wrote Barghouti?

“Stand by and wait for the next Palestinian family to be burned, for the next Palestinian child to be killed or arrested, for the next settlement to be built? The entire world knows that Jerusalem is the flame that can inspire peace and ignite war.”

“Why then does the world stand still while the Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people in the city and in Muslim and Christian holy sites, notably Al-Haram al-Sharif, continue unabated?”

“Israel’s actions and crimes not only destroy the two-state solution on 1967 borders and violate international law, they threaten to transform a solvable political conflict into a never-ending religious war that will undermine stability in a region already experiencing unprecedented turmoil.”

These are powerful views never aired by mainstream Western editors, correspondents, columnists or contributors. Barghouti spent 40 years struggling for Palestinian independence, first imprisoned at age 15, much of his ordeal in solitary confinement - over 20 years in Israeli gulag hell, including the past 13.

He continues struggling for Palestinian rights encaged. “(T)he last day of occupation will be the first day of peace,” he stressed, not a single day sooner!

Contrast his profound views reflecting deep conviction for what’s right to deplorable daily New York Times propaganda, blaming Palestinians for Israeli crimes, its latest article headlined “Stabbings, and Deadly Responses, Add to Israel’s Security Challenge.”

Readers need go no further to understand The Times’ one-sided support for Israel - Palestinian “stabbings” the problem, not nearly 70 years of repressive Israeli occupation, wars at its discretion, brutalizing an entire population for not being Jewish.

And now, daily summary judgment, cold-blooded murder by any standard, pretexts largely contrived. Even when true, international law mandates due process and judicial fairness, never for Palestinians in Israel or under illegal occupation - with no denunciation from Western officials or major media, the New York Times Exhibit A, a longstanding lying machine for wealth, power and privilege.

“…Israel is struggling to contain a spasm of violence,” it said, followed by alleged examples, all based on Israeli accounts of events, mostly fabricated or greatly exaggerated, eyewitness testimonies and video evidence often refuting official reports.

“Palestinians carried out four attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem on Monday alone,” said The Times.

Palestinians are dying, not Israelis, the toll now 27 since October 1, 1,400 others injured by live fire or rubber-coated bullets, clear evidence of indiscriminate attacks on an entire population.

“About 10 Palestinians have been fatally shot by the security forces while they were carrying out, or attempting to carry out, attacks, or after snatching weapons from soldiers or police officers,” said The Times, regurgitating what Israel says.

Most of these reports are malicious lies or gross exaggerations. Palestinians aren’t shooting soldiers and police. They’re victimized by daily state terror - dying because the world community remains silent, refusing to intervene responsibly.

Defenseless people posing no threat are being gunned down in cold blood, pretexts invented to justify murder, killers never held responsible.

Extrajudicial assassinations are longstanding Israeli policy. On Monday, video evidence showed a seriously wounded Palestinian boy, left to die while police did nothing to help, pushing him down when he tried sitting up.

Israeli onlookers shouted: “Die, you son of a whore.” “Die, you son of the biggest whore,” telling police to “(d)o him a favor and shoot him in the head!”

Left unattended, he bled to death, police kicking him to be sure he stayed down, one of many examples of horrific Israeli brutality, grievous crimes against humanity, virtually always unaccountable.

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two