![Palestinian security members hold photo of Palestinian activist Marwan Barghouti on 15th April 2015 [Shadi Hatem/Apaimages]](https://i0.wp.com/d2.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/2015_Palestinian-security-members-hold-portraits-of-Marwan-Barghouti-1.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed the Fatah movement – which leads the Palestinian Authority – for its recent decision to elect jailed Palestinian activist Marwan Barghouti to a senior a position within the movement.
“Marwan is a leader of a terrorist organisation that encouraged and led terror attacks that killed and wounded dozens of innocent Israelis,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office today.
“By electing him, Fatah is no longer satisfied with incitement in schools and naming streets and squares after murderers – it is also placing them in high leadership roles,” the prime minister added.
An icon of the Palestinian resistance, Barghouti – who has languished in an Israeli jail for more than a decade – won a seat on Fatah’s authoritative Central Committee at the movement’s recently-concluded general congress.
Barghouti played leading roles in both the first and second Palestinian Intifadas – in 1987 and 2000 respectively – against the Israeli occupation.
In 2002, Barghouti was arrested by Israel and slapped with five consecutive life sentences for his alleged involvement in several attacks on Israelis.