Marwan Barghouti, ‘Palestine’s Mandela’, to publish book from prison

A collection of writings by the imprisoned Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti will be published in November, bringing together prison letters, interviews, personal material and documents from the last three decades of Barghouti’s political life and incarceration.As deadly attacks on Gaza continue despite a nominal ceasefire, the 66-year-old is seen by many as the best hope for a leader of any future Palestinian state.His book, Unbroken: In Pursuit of Freedom for Palestine, will be published by Penguin on 5 November this year, the publisher has told the Guardian.The cover of Unbroken: In Pursuit of Freedom for Palestine. Photograph: PenguinBarghouti has been held in Israeli prisons since 2002, after being arrested in Ramallah, where he was serving as an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. He was captured and imprisoned after being accused of orchestrating attacks that resulted in the killing of five civilians, and convicted on terrorism charges by an Israeli court. The Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organisation, criticised the trial at the time, arguing that it breached international law, including the Geneva conventions. Barghouti has consistently denied the charges against him.Barghouti is a member of the Fatah party, a rival of Hamas, and has long advocated a two-state solution. Many argue that Israel’s refusal to release him is driven by concern that he could emerge as a powerful voice for the Palestinian cause.Born in 1959 in the West Bank village of Kobar, Barghouti grew up under Israeli military occupation after the 1967 war and was arrested multiple times for political activism as a teenager. Over subsequent decades he emerged as a prominent figure within Palestinian politics, advocating Palestinian unity.The forthcoming book will assemble private letters to Barghouti’s family written from prison, correspondence with public figures, press interviews, public statements, historical documents and photographs, alongside extracts from his book 1,000 Days in Solitary Confinement, which until now has been available only in Arabic.Barghouti has spent extended periods in solitary confinement without access to his family and, according to former Palestinian detainees, has been subjected to multiple serious assaults in prison. In November 2025, the Guardian reported that he had not seen his family for three years, while his lawyers had been permitted to visit him only five times in the prior two years. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been barred from visiting him, a move that breaches international law.In August last year, Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, shared video footage in which he was seen taunting Barghouti and threatening him with execution.Despite more than two decades in prison, successive opinion polls show Barghouti is the most popular Palestinian politician in Gaza and the West Bank. He is often cited by supporters as a potential unifying leader across factional divides, and has been described as “Palestine’s Mandela”. His continued prominence has fuelled international campaigns calling for his release.The latest was launched in November 2025, with coordinated demonstrations and public art installations in Palestine and in cities including London, alongside protests across Europe, the US and South Africa. In December, more than 200 leading cultural figures – including Margaret Atwood, Annie Ernaux, Benedict Cumberbatch, Elif Shafak, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Tilda Swinton, Olga Tokarczuk, Colm Tóibín, Sir Ian McKellen and Gary Lineker – signed an open letter calling for his release.An introduction to the book has been written by Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa Barghouti, a prominent advocate for his release. “For a long time, I have wished that the world could hear Marwan in his own voice, not through the noise surrounding him,” she said in a statement. “This book finally makes that possible – and I hope it helps people understand who Marwan Barghouti truly is, and how he embodies the Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity.”