Polanski defends call to release Marwan Barghouti

Zack Polanski has defended his call to free the Palestinian revolutionary Marwan Barghouti. In doing so, he’s shone a light on a figure who is almost universally ignored by the Western media:

Good. Let's talk about Marwan Barghouti.

Imprisoned for 25 years.
An inter-Parliamentary Union report found he was not given a fair trial.

Nelson Mandela: “What is happening to Barghouti is exactly the same as what happened to me."

Free Marwan.https://t.co/EoTcJkttRd https://t.co/CNh7Z0mSz6

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 7, 2026

Polanski speaks up for Barghouti

Writing on Barghouti in 2025, Joe Glenton reported for the Canary:

He was sentenced to five life sentences in 2002. For murder charges he denies. By a coloniser court whose authority he rejects. In a trial which experts say was full of illegalities.

He’s a sort of Palestinian everyman, known for his calm demeanour, who learned Hebrew in jail and spent years in exile. He spent years in hiding, dodging Israeli assassination attempts.

Also in 2025, a released Palestinian detainee reported that Israeli authorities were torturing Barghouti. His son Omar said:

I woke up to a phone call from a released prisoner this morning. He told me, “Your father was physically abused. They broke his teeth and ribs, cut off part of his ear, and broke his fingers in stages for fun…

What do I do? Who do I talk to? Who can we turn to? We’re living with this nightmare every day… Oh God, have mercy on me. My father is 66 years old now. Oh God, where will he find the strength?”

Polanski has attracted criticism from the British gutter press, because these people are still willing to take the genocidal Israel at its word:

Are people seriously voting for this guy? Really? @ZackPolanski is openly and proudly giving his wholehearted support to a CONVICTED TERRORIST WHO KILLED FIVE INNOCENT PEOPLE. That's who Marwan Barghouti is.

And that tells us exactly who Zack Polanski is too. This man is a… https://t.co/4AVYzBy5EF

— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) June 7, 2026

War crimes

There are many reports of Israel using torture against Palestinian detainees. As Alaa Shamali reported for the Canary in December:

Documented Palestinian testimonies reveal the use of sexual violence, including rape, as a systematic means of torture inside Israeli prisons, in one of the most serious violations suffered by Palestinian prisoners since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, amid widespread international silence and accusations of political collusion that provides cover for the continuation of these crimes.

Most recently, detainees claimed Israel uses dogs to rape them. The claims became so un-ignorable that even the usually compliant New York Times reported on them. And the evidence has only continued to grow since then:

Guards at Israel’s notorious Sde Teiman torture camp have admitted their colleagues use dogs to rape Palestinian captives there, according to a prominent Israeli analyst.

Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, a geopolitical expert who opposes Israel’s genocide in Gaza, said he spoke to two guards… pic.twitter.com/xUJoIM2XSZ

— Novara Media (@novaramedia) April 20, 2026

Clear messaging

So yes, this is why Zack Polanski is calling for Barghouti’s release.

Because Israel cannot be trusted to tell the truth about why it detained people, and because it cannot be trusted to keep them safe once they’re detained.

Featured image via Jon Rowley (Getty Images) / Uriel Sinai (Getty Images)