Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has told a Palestinian political pensioner that he would “wipe” out Palestinians in a video that surfaced on social media, Middle East Eye reports.
In the video, Ben-Gvir tells 66-year-old Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who has been detained by Israel since 2002, that: “You won’t win. Whoever messes with the nation of Israel, whoever murders our children and women — we will wipe them out. You should know this, [this happened] throughout history.”
Barghouti has spent years in solitary confinement, and relatives expressed concern that Israel would kill him in custody. Last year, Israeli prison authorities seriously physically assaulted him while he was in solitary confinement.
Barghouti is dubbed the ‘Palestinian Nelson Mandela,’ and remains extremely popular among Palestinians.