While President Donald Trump claims to have negotiated a cease fire between Israel and Hamas, one of the key players in future negotiations remains behind bars. The 66-year-old politician Marwan Barghouti, who is currently imprisoned in Israel, has been described by Palestinians as their Nelson Mandela but by Israel as a terrorist. Israel has remained adamant that they will not free Barghouti from his prison term, even as Palestinians push for his release.

'Unifying pragmatist or terrorist mastermind'

Barghouti was a student leader at Birzeit University in the West Bank and was involved in popular protests at the time of the first Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, in 1987. In the 1990s, he emerged as a prominent figure in Fatah — the movement led by Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud A

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