Marwan Barghouti | |
|---|---|
 Barghouti in 2001 | |
| Member of thePalestinian Legislative Council | |
| Assumed office 7 March 1996 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1959-06-06)6 June 1959 (age 66) Kobar, Jordanian-occupied West Bank |
| Political party | Fatah (1974–2005, 2006–present) Al-Mustaqbal (2005–2006) |
| Spouse | Fadwa Barghouti |
| Children | 4 |
Marwan Barghouti (also transliteratedal-Barghuthi;Arabic:مروان البرغوثي; born 6 June 1959) is aPalestinian political leader who has served as an elected legislator and has been an advocate of atwo-state solution since prior to his imprisonment byIsrael.[1][2][3]
Barghouti led street protests and diplomatic initiatives until 2002, the earlySecond Intifada, when he was captured, convicted, and imprisoned by Israel on charges of involvement in deadly attacks that resulted in the deaths of five people.[4] Barghouti declined to recognise the legitimacy of the court or enter a plea, but stated that he had no connection to the incidents for which he was convicted.[5] AnInter-Parliamentary Union report found that Barghouti was not given afair trial and questioned the quality of the evidence.[6][7]
Despite his imprisonment, Barghouti has consistently topped opinion polls asking Palestinians whom they would vote forin a Presidential election, ahead of both currentPalestinian Authority presidentMahmoud Abbas andleaders of Hamas. Several prominent supporters of a resumption of theIsrael-Palestine peace process view Barghouti as the leader most able to unify the Palestinians and negotiate a compromise with Israel. He has been referred to as "the Palestinian Mandela".[8][9][10][11]
During his years in prison, Barghouti has continued to be politically active. He was an instigator and lead author of the 2006Palestinian Prisoners' Document, which proposed a political path to a two-state solution, and secured support fromHamas. He has organised education for fellow inmates, and in 2017 led ahunger strike that led to increased visitation rights.[12] SinceOctober 2023, he has been denied visits from his family and been severely beaten several times, leading to persistent damage to his health, according to his lawyer.[13] Israeli authorities have rejected his complaints over the incidents. Several attempts to secure his release through negotiations have failed.[14]
Barghouti was born in the village ofKobar nearRamallah in the West Bank. Like his distant cousinMustafa Barghouti, a fellow Palestinian political leader, he belongs to the extendedBarghouti family. His younger brother Muqbel described him as "a naughty and rebellious boy."[15]
In 1967, when Barghouti was seven years old, Israel occupied theWest Bank in theSix-Day War. According toThe Economist, Marwan's "neighbours were beaten up or arrested for flying Palestinian flags. Military bases and Jewish settlements sprang up around their village. Israeli soldiers shot dead the family dog for barking."[14]
Barghouti joinedFatah at age 15,[2] and he was a co-founder of the Fatah Youth Movement (Shabiba) on the West Bank. That year he was first imprisoned by Israel.[16] At 18, he was imprisoned again. He later wrote that during the subsequent interrogation, he was forced to strip naked, spread his legs, and was struck on the genitals so hard that he lost consciousness.[16] He completed hissecondary education and received a high school diploma while serving a four-year term in jail, where he became fluent inHebrew.[17]
Barghouti enrolled atBirzeit University in 1983, though arrest and exile meant that he did not receive his Bachelor's degree (History and Political Science) until 1994. He earned a Master's degree in International Relations, also from Birzeit, in 1998. As an undergraduate, he was active in student politics on behalf of Fatah and headed the Birzeit Student Council. In 1984, he marriedFadwa Ibrahim, a fellow student. Fadwa studied law and was a prominent advocate in her own right on behalf of Palestinian prisoners, before becoming the leading campaigner for her husband's release from his current jail term. Together the couple had four children. Before his eldest son was born, and while still a student leader, Barghouti was jailed for a third time.[14] He missed the birth of his eldest son.[16] In May 1987, Israel expelled him. Initially Barghouti and Fadwa moved toTunis, and then in April 1988 toAmman.
From exile, during the First Intifada, Barghouti continued to maintain contacts among activists in theWest Bank. He simultaneously built relationships with the older generation of Fatah activists, who had waged their struggle from exile for more than three decades. He was elected to Fatah'sRevolutionary Council, the movement's internal parliament, in 1989.[18] When he was allowed to return toPalestine in April 1994 as a result of theOslo Accords, Barghouti found that he was able to bridge the divide between the two groups.[17]
Although he was a strong supporter of the peace process, he doubted that Israel was committed to it.[2] In 1996, he was elected to thePalestinian Legislative Council for the district ofRamallah.[2] Barghouti campaigned against corruption in Arafat's administration and human rights violations by its security services.[2] He participated in diplomacy and built relationships with a number of Israeli politicians, and with leaders of Israel's peace movement. A series of peace conferences in the wake of the Oslo accords featured "heated discussions."[18] WhenMeir Shitreet fell ill during a peace conference in Italy, Shitreet said that Barghouti sat at his bedside through the night.[14] In 1998 he attended a meeting with members of theIsraeli Knesset, referring to those present as friends, and called to "strengthen this peace process."[7]Haim Oron, a former Israeli cabinet minister, recalled that "he spoke about the right of the Palestinians, and when I spoke about the right of Jews, he understood".[14] His assistant has claimed that Barghouti never refused to meet any Israeli.[14]
By the late 1990s, Palestinians had become frustrated with the lack of progress toward an independent state that they felt had been promised by the Oslo accords, and by the privations of life under occupation. There were frequent demonstrations by civil society and political groups. According toDiana Buttu, "Marwan was somebody who was present at each and every protest for weeks and weeks and weeks on end. It became very clear that we were just never going to see freedom."[7] Barghouti met with the central committees of almost every Israeli party, the journalistGideon Levy has claimed, to warn them that, with an impasse in the peace process, the situation was tending toward violence.[7] The formal position occupied by Barghouti was Secretary-General of Fatah in the West Bank.[19] By the summer of 2000, particularly after theCamp David summit failed, Barghouti was disillusioned and said that popular protests and "new forms of military struggle" would be features of the "next Intifada."[2][17]
In September 2000, theSecond Intifada began. Barghouti became increasingly popular as a leader of demonstrations, as a spokesperson for Palestinian interests, and as leader of theTanzim, a grouping of younger activists within Fatah who had taken up arms. Barghouti described himself as "a politician, not a military man."[15] Barghouti led marches to Israeli checkpoints, where riots broke out against Israeli soldiers and spurred on Palestinians in speeches at funerals and demonstrations, advocating the use of force to expel Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[2] He has stated that, "I, and the Fatah movement to which I belong, strongly oppose attacks and the targeting of civilians inside Israel, our future neighbor, I reserve the right to protect myself, to resist the Israeli occupation of my country and to fight for my freedom" and has said, "I still seek peaceful coexistence between the equal and independent countries of Israel and Palestine based on full withdrawal from Palestinian territories occupied in 1967."[20]
As the Palestinian death toll in the Second Intifada mounted, Barghouti called for Palestinians to target Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, but not within Israel.[17][21] Others, such as leaders of Hamas, openly backed attacks on civilians within Israel.
Israel has accused Barghouti of having co-founded and lead theAl-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades during this period, which he has denied.[2] Israel attempted to assassinate him in 2001.[1] That August, Israeli forces fired two missiles from an illegal West Bank settlement at a convoy of cars in Ramallah and injured Barghouti's bodyguard.[22] At the time, Israeli security sources claimed that they had intended to kill another Fatah operative. The then-head ofShin Bet subsequently claimed to have made two attempts to assassinate Barghouti.[23] Barghouti went into hiding.
Barghouti was captured on 15 April 2002 by Israeli soldiers, who had disguised their journey to his location by hiding in a civilian ambulance.[24] He was transferred to theMoscovia Detention Centre. On 18 April, Barghouti was reported to have declined to cooperate with his interrogators, and allowed to communicate freely with his lawyer. He was then denied the right to see his lawyer for the next month, except for an occasion on which they were not allowed to discuss the investigation.[6] The next time he was able to talk freely with his lawyer, Barghouti described having been subject to severe sleep deprivation and insufficient food. He described the torture, in the form of theshabeh method, in a later book,1000 Days In Solitary Jail.[25] He said that he was forced to sit on a chair with nails protruding into his back for hours at a time.[25] Simon Foreman, the lawyer commissioned by theInter-Parliamentary Union to report on the trial, has said "the witnesses whose statements were used to accuse [Barghouti], many of them made the same kind of statements and those allegations were disregarded, openly disregarded by the courts."[6][7] Barghouti has also stated that the interrogators threatened to kill him and his eldest son.[6] He has written that during his pre-trial detention, in addition to Moscovia, he was held for periods atCamp 1391 and thePetah Tikva prison.[25]
Israel filed its indictment on 14 August and Barghouti's trial commenced on 5 September.[26] Barghouti was charged with 26 charges of murder and attempted murder stemming from attacks carried out by theal-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades on Israeli civilians and soldiers.[27][28] Barghouti refused to present a defense to the charges brought against him, maintaining throughout that the trial was illegal and illegitimate.[29] He stressed that he supported armed resistance to theIsraeli occupation, but condemned attacks on civilians inside Israel. According to the case argued by Israel at his trial, he had supported and authorized such attacks. On 20 May 2004, he was convicted of five counts of murder: authorizing and organizing themurder of Georgios Tsibouktzakis (a.k.a. Father Germanos, aGreek Orthodox monk-priest), a shooting adjacent toGiv'at Ze'ev in which a civilian was killed, and theSeafood Market attack inTel Aviv in which three civilians were killed. In addition, he was convicted of attempted murder for a failedcar bomb attack nearMalha Mall that exploded prematurely, resulting in the deaths of two suicide bombers, and for membership and activity in a terrorist organization. He was acquitted of 21 counts of murder in 33 other attacks as no proof was brought to link Barghouti directly with the specific decisions of the local leadership of the Tanzim to carry out these particular attacks.[30] Following the verdict, Barghouti shouted in Hebrew, "This is a court of occupation that I do not recognize. A day will come when you will be ashamed of these accusations. I have no more connection to these charges than you, the judges, do."[31] On 6 June 2004, he was sentenced to the maximum possible punishment for his convictions: five cumulative life sentences for the murders and an additional 40 years, consisting of 20 years each for attempted murder and for membership and activity in a terrorist organization. The Israeli verdict against him in effect removed Arafat's only political rival.[32]
TheInter-Parliamentary Union found that the "numerous breaches of international law" to which Barghouti was subjected "make it impossible to conclude that Mr. Barghouti was given a fair trial."[6][33] The criticisms raised by Simon Foreman, the report's author, included the court's failure to consider the public allegations of torture; its authorisation of incommunicado detention; prejudicial statements by the presiding judge; the transportation of Barghouti to Israel contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention; and the poor evidence for guilt.[6] Foreman wrote, "According to the prosecution, only 21 of the prosecution witnesses were actually in a position to testify directly regarding Mr. Barghouti's role in these attacks. But none of these 21 individuals in fact accused him. About 12 of them explicitly told the court that he was not involved."[6] Concerning "material" evidence, Barghouti's lawyer told Foreman that "no document originated by Mr. Barghouti had implicated him in the acts of which he was being accused."[6]
Fadwa began campaigning for her husband’s release the day he was arrested.[34] The International Campaign to Free Marwan Barghouti and All Palestinian Prisoners was launched in 2013 from Nelson Mandela's former cell on Robben Island.[35] The campaign was launched byFadwa andAhmed Kathrada, who was jailed alongside Mandela at theRivonia Trial. Barghouti has often drawn comparisons to Mandela from commentators inclined toward a resumption of the peace process.[9][10][36] For example,Reuters reported that some see Barghouti "as a Palestinian Nelson Mandela, the man who could galvanize a drifting and divided national movement if only he were set free by Israel." Many of his supporters have campaigned for his release. They include prominent Palestinian figures, members of European Parliament and the Israeli groupGush Shalom. According toThe Jerusalem Post, "[u]nlike many in the Western media, Palestinian journalists have rarely referred to Barghouti in these terms.[37]
In August 2023, Barghouti's wife Fadwa held meetings with senior officials and diplomats across the world, including Jordanian Foreign MinisterAyman Safadi, to advocate for her husband's release and position him as a successor to Abbas. According toAl-Sharq al-Awsat, Barghouti would run in Palestinian presidential elections and maintained a polling lead over all other candidates.[38]
In 2008, 45% of Israelis supported the release of Barghouti, while 51% were opposed.[39] Another approach is to suggest that Israel's freeing of Barghouti would be an excellent show of good faith in the peace process. Some prominent Israelis have called for Barghouti's release, citing his unique ability to unite Palestinians. These includeAmi Ayalon,[40][41]Efraim Halevy,[42][43]Meir Shitreet,[14] and bothYossi Beilin[7] andHaim Oron,[14] two former ministers on the left of Israeli politics.[6] Several IDF officers involved in Barghouti's 2002 capture have taken a similar view.[23]
Every Israeli administration since Barghouti's imprisonment has declined to release him. Ayalon claimed in 2024 that "You will not find anybody in our current political community that has any interest in releasing Marwan Barghouti."[44] Figures who have spoken in opposition to his release include former Defense MinisterMoshe Ya’alon,Avi Dichter, and former Foreign MinisterSilvan Shalom, who called Barghouti "an assassin who has blood on his hands."[23][45][46]
This view gained popularity among the Israeli left after the2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip. Still others, operating from arealpolitik perspective, have pointed out that allowing Barghouti to re-enter Palestinian politics could serve to bolster Fatah against gains inHamas' popularity.[47]
In January 2007, Israeli Deputy Prime MinisterShimon Peres declared that he would pardon Barghouti if elected president. Peres was elected, but issued no pardon.[48]
In 2004, Israel's ambassador to Washington Danny Ayalon proposed, with the "tacit agreement" ofAriel Sharon, that Israel would free Barghouti in exchange for the Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who was imprisoned by the United States. Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice rejected the request.[23] In 2006, there were conflicting claims concerning proposals for Barghouti's release. A Saudi newspaper reported that Condoleezza Rice had proposed such a step to Israel, with no mention of a quid pro quo, butEhud Olmert denied that the idea had been raised in talks with the United States.[49] He reportedly continued to oppose Barghouti's release in 2007.[50]
Hamas sought the inclusion of Barghouti in the 2011 prisoner exchange deal that led to the release ofGilad Shalit, but Israel refused to include him.[23]
During the prisoner swap negotiations in 2024 and 2025 that arose from theGaza War, Hamas said that Barghouti was at the top of their list of prisoners whom they wanted Israel to free.[51] Israel again refused.[52]The Economist reported thatMahmoud Abbas, who was expected to face a political challenge from Barghouti on the latter's release, "urged Qatari mediators to remove Barghouti's name from the list of prisoner exchanges."[52] In January 2025, an Israeli government official denied reports that Barghouti was set to be released and exiled to Turkey.[53]
Yasser Arafat died in November 2004, and the Palestinian Authority called apresidential election for January 2005. Barghouti announced from his isolation cell that he would contest the election, challenging interim-President Mahmoud Abbas, a long-timeFatah administrator of Arafat's generation.Fadwa registered her husband's candidacy as an independent on 1 December.[54][55]
The Israeli government came to know that two of Barghouti's closest confidantes – Fadwa and advisor Qadura Fares – privately opposed Barghouti's decision to stand, and decided to allow the two to meet with Barghouti to press their case, breaking two years in which he had been denied such contact.[23] His candidacy was also criticised by Fatah leaders as a threat to the movement's unity.[56][57] His campaign manager announced Barghouti's decision to withdraw from the race on 12 December. In a letter read at the announcement, Barghouti accused Fatah's leadership of having grown "old, weak and alienated" from the rank and file.[58] In 2016, Fares said that he believed his advice had been a mistake.[23]
Abbas won the election, and there has been no Palestinian presidential election since.
In 2006 Israeli media reported that MK Haim Oron had met with Barghouti in prison dozens of times, and had carried messages back and forth between Barghouti and Prime MinisterEhud Olmert.[49] Foreign MinisterTzipi Livni also met directly with Barghouti.
On 14 December 2005, Barghouti announced that he had formed a new political party,al-Mustaqbal ("The Future"), mainly composed of members of Fatah's "Young Guard", who repeatedly expressed frustration with the entrenched corruption in the party. The list, which was presented to the Palestinian Authority's central elections committee on that day, includedMohammed Dahlan,Qadura Fares,Samir Mashharawi andJibril Rajoub.[29]
The split followed Barghouti's earlier refusal ofMahmoud Abbas' offer to be second on the Fatah party's parliamentary list, behind Palestinian Prime MinisterAhmed Qurei. Barghouti had actually topped the list,[59] but this had not become apparent until after the new party had been registered.
Reactions to the news were split. Some suggested that the move was a positive step towards peace, as Barghouti's new party could help reform major problems in Palestinian government. Others raised concern that it could wind up splitting the Fatah vote, inadvertently helping Hamas. Barghouti's supporters argued that al-Mustaqbal would split the votes of both parties, both from disenchanted Fatah members as well as moderate Hamas voters who do not agree with Hamas' political goals, but rather its social work and hard position on corruption. Some observers also hypothesized that the formation of al-Mustaqbal was mostly a negotiating tactic to get members of the Young Guard into higher positions of power within Fatah and its electoral list.
Barghouti eventually was convinced that the idea of leading a new party, especially one that was created by splitting from Fatah, would be unrealistic while he was still in prison. Instead he stood as a Fatah candidate in the January 2006PLC elections, comfortably regaining his seat in thePalestinian Parliament.
On 11 May 2006, Palestinian leaders held in Israeli prisons released theNational Conciliation Document of the Prisoners. The document was a proposal initiated by Marwan Barghouti and leaders ofHamas, thePFLP, thePalestinian Islamic Jihad and theDFLP that proposed a basis upon which a coalition government should be formed in thePalestinian Legislative Council. This came as a result of the political stalemate in thePalestinian territories that followed Hamas' election to the PLC in January 2006. Crucially, the document also called for negotiation with the state of Israel in order to achieve lasting peace. The document quickly gained popular currency and is now considered the bedrock upon which a national unity government should be achieved. According to Haaretz, Barghouti, although not officially represented in the negotiations of a Palestinian unity government in February 2007, played a major role in mediating between Hamas and Fatah and formulating the compromise reached on 8 February 2007.[60] In 2009, he was elected to party leadership at the Fatah Conference in Bethlehem.[61]
In March 2010, Barghouti completed a doctorate in political science. He had been accepted byCairo University and the Arab Academy for Research and Studies in 1999, prior to his arrest in 2002. His doctoral thesis was titled “The Legislative and Political Performance of the Palestinian Legislative Council and its Contribution to the Democratic Process in Palestine from 1996 to 2008.”[62] Barghouti was reported to have taught a master’s level course in "Israel Studies" to hundreds of fellow Palestinian prisoners while incarcerated. One former inmate, Abu Muhsin, said he had studied under Barghouti during his 23-year sentence, ultimately earning a bachelor's degree in political science from theHebrew University of Jerusalem and a master's degree fromAl-Quds University. Barghouti’s attainment of a doctorate in 2010 enabled him to teach university-level courses in prison.[63] Barghouti had organised a programme to provide education to his fellow prisoners. In a 2014 interview he stated:
I teach and lecture on a variety of topics in various disciplines, including at the university level... There are dozens of prisoners who never had the chance to be educated at the secondary or university level and who want to pursue their education. I have been in charge of teaching them and we’ve achieved good results in both foreign language instruction and university syllabuses with the help of some of my fellow detainees.[64]
Barghouti declined to testify before an Israeli court in January 2012, but used the opportunity of his appearance to say that "an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines and the establishment of a Palestinian state will bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," according to Haaretz's Avi Issacharoff.[65] That March, in a letter from prison, Barghouti called for a new wave of civil resistance against the occupation, and for the Palestinian Authority to end all coordination with Israel. He wrote "Large-scale popular resistance at this stage serves the cause of our people."[66] Barghouti has frequently been punished for releasing statements through internment in solitary confinement.[34]
In November 2014, months after more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed by Israel in the2014 Gaza War, Barghouti urged thePalestinian Authority to end security cooperation withIsrael and called for aThird Intifada against Israel.[67] In 2016, a plan for confronting the occupation, purportedly authored by Barghouti and smuggled from prison, was presented by an ally. The plans hinged on "mass disobedience" and demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people according to the Economist's1843 Magazine.[14] Barghouti expected that Israel would kill some of the demonstrators.
In April 2017 he organized a hunger strike of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails.[68] In an op-ed forThe New York Times, Barghouti said that the hunger strikers sought to end the "torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, and medical negligence" to which prisoners were subject.[16] A list of demands issued by the strikers included access to telephones to communicate with their families, increased visitation rights, and a series of steps to address medical negligence.[69] They also included access to books and newspapers and an end to the practices of solitary confinement and administrative detention.
On 7 May, theIsrael Prison Service released videos allegedly showing Barghouti hiding in the toilet stall of his cell while eating cookies and candy, then trying to flush the wrappers. The videos were recorded on 27 April and on 5 May, a period during which almost 1,000 of Barghouti's fellow prisoners were refusing all food.[70][71] Anonymous sources in the prison service confirmed the authenticity of the videos, saying that the food was made available to Barghouti to test his adherence to the hunger strike. Barghouti's attorney refused to respond to the videos, while his wife claimed that they had been "fabricated" to discredit him. Israeli media reported that this was not Barghouti's first time being caught secretly breaking a hunger strike, and that in 2004 he had been photographed hiding a plate after eating off it in his cell.[72][73][74] According to Haaretz's Amos Harel, among Palestinians, the episode "only strengthened his image as a leader who is feared by Israel – which resorts to ugly tricks in order to trip him up,".[75] The hunger strike ended after Israel conceded a second family visit for each prisoner per month.[12]
Barghouti intended to contest thePalestinian Presidential elections slated for 2021,[76] but they were cancelled by President Abbas, citing Israel's refusal to permit voting inEast Jerusalem.[77] Immediately prior to the cancelation, a poll suggested that Barghouti would go on to win the Presidency, with more than double Abbas's support, and significantly more than that ofIsmail Haniyeh.[78] Barghouti remains the most popular Palestinian leader. In each of the six polls conducted by thePalestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research between September 2023 and May 2025, Barghouti came out ahead of a Hamas candidate when Palestinians were asked who they would vote for as President in a two-way race.[4][3] There has been no Palestinian Presidential election since 2005 and postponed indefinitely.
Barghouti was held insolitary confinement for three years following his 2002 detention and has frequently been returned to solitary confinement since.[79] Since 7 October 2023, Barghouti has been interred in solitary confinement. Shortly after that date, the governor ofOfer Prison ordered Barghouti to kneel before the governor, according to his son, Arab Barghouti.[80] Arab described the order as an attempt to humiliate Barghouti, and by extension the watching prisoners, who saw Barghouti as a leader. Arab added that when his father refused to comply he was forced to his knees by prison guards, dislocating his shoulder.
In December 2023, his lawyer claimed, Barghouti was beaten on several occasions, and on one occasion "dragged on the floor naked in front of other prisoners."[81] In March 2024, Barghouti told his lawyers that he was dragged to an area ofMegiddo prison without security cameras and assaulted with batons by prison guards.[81][82] The Guardian reported, "He recalled bleeding from the nose as he was dragged across the floor by his handcuffs, before he was beaten unconscious."[81] According to his family, speaking in February 2024, Barghouti was held in the dark, with loud music playing into his cell for days at a time.[51] In May 2024, The Guardian reported that Barghouti "spends his days huddled in a cramped, dark, solitary cell, with no way to tend to his wounds, and a shoulder injury from being dragged with his hands cuffed behind his back,".[81] ThePublic Committee Against Torture in Israel said that Barghouti had been subjected to treatment amounting to torture, which they said had "become standard across all detention facilities since 7 October."[11]
Israeli prison authorities were accused of "brutally assaulting" Barghouti in September 2024.[82] The Israeli prison service said in October 2024 that they had rejected two complaints of mistreatment by Barghouti over the past year on the grounds that there had been no violation of the law.[13]
On 21 October 1984, Barghouti marriedFadwa Barghouti.[83] They have four children: Qassam, Ruba, Sharaf and Arab, along with six grandchildren (as of 2024).[64][84] In a 2025 interview withAlastair Campbell andRory Stewart on their podcast,Leading, Arab Barghouti revealed that his father was a fan ofReal Madrid CF.[85]
His daughter-in-law,Nadeen Ayoub, who married his son Sharaf in 2016, participated in the2025 Miss Universe contest as Miss Palestine.[86]
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