Marwan Barghouthi (54) is widely known as the ‘Palestinian Mandela' and was one of the first (and most popular) Palestinian member of parliament arrested by Israel. He was abducted in 2002 by the Israeli army and thereafter tried, convicted and sentenced to five life sentences. At his trial in 2002, Barghouthi refused to participate in its proceedings maintaining that his abduction and the Israeli trial were illegal and illegitimate. Click here for a recently published article on Marwan Barghouti by South African political analyst, Shannon Field.

Over 750 000 Palestinians (roughly 40% of Palestinian men) have been imprisoned by Israel at one point in time. About 100 000 Palestinians have been held by Israel in "administrative detention" (the equivalent of Apartheid South Africa's "Detention without trial"). Similar to the experience of Black families under Apartheid, almost every Palestinian family has been affected by the Israeli imprisonment of a relative. Over 5000 Palestinians are currently detained by Israel; 13 of them women, 195 of them children, and 134 of them held under "administrative detention".

In 2007 the international security company, G4S, was contracted to provide and maintain Israeli prisons, torture centres and Israeli prisons. G4S also provides equipment and services to Israeli checkpoints and Israel's illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank . More information on the boycott against G4S together with campaign material and ways you can get involved will be distributed shortly...

It is possible...
It is possible at least sometimes...
It is possible especially now
To ride a horse
Inside a prison cell
And run away...

It is possible for prison walls
To disappear,
For the cell to become a distant land
Without frontiers:

    What did you do with the walls?
    I gave them back to the rocks.
    And what did you do with the ceiling?
    I turned it into a saddle.
    And your chain?
    I turned it into a pencil.

The prison guard got angry.
He put an end to the dialogue.
He said he didn't care for poetry,
And bolted the door of my cell.

He came back to see me
In the morning.
He shouted at me:

    Where did all this water come from?
    I brought it from the Nile.
    And the trees?
    From the orchards of Damascus.
    And the music?
    From my heartbeat.

The prison guard got mad.
He put an end to my dialogue.
He said he didn't like my poetry,
And bolted the door of my cell.

But he returned in the evening:

    Where did this moon come from?
    From the nights of Baghdad.
    And the wine?
    From the vineyards of Algiers.
    And this freedom?
    From the chain you tied me with last night.

The prison guard grew so sad...
He begged me to give him back
His freedom.

— Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008)

The official twitter account of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation is @KathradaFound. Join us online by using the hashtags #RobbenIsland, #PalestinianPrisoners and #BoycottG4S.