Released after 44 years, Nael Barghouti calls for complete freedom through Palestine's liberation

Nael Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner, who was released yesterday as part of the seventh and final batch of the prisoner exchange deal linked to the ceasefire agreement, said his ability to leave prison was only a “partial release”, adding that “true freedom will only be complete with the liberation of Gaza – its land, its people, and its resistance – and the full freedom of Palestine.”

In a televised interview with Al Jazeera yesterday evening, Barghouti added: “We are soldiers of this people, who have been resisting for more than 120 years without weariness or fatigue.”

He described the conditions of the prisoners’ release as “extremely harsh”, saying they reflect “the cowardice and oppression of the occupation,” which, he claimed, employed all forms of physical and psychological torture it had learned from Nazism and American racism.

Barghouti further explained: “The occupation subjected prisoners to daily assaults through all forms of physical and psychological torture. However, our people’s resistance has shattered its oppression, achieving remarkable victories in this modern era.”

He continued, “For our people, resistance is the path to salvation. It has come at the cost of an ocean of blood, allowing a lifeboat for those whose lives have been crushed by imprisonment. It is a partnership between those who sacrificed their blood and those who sacrificed their years so that this nation may one day live in freedom and dignity and Palestine be liberated. Our people take pride in their fighters, their heroes, and above all, Gaza, which has made immense sacrifices, led by the late brothers Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and all the martyrs we have known and those we have not — they all remain in our hearts.”

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