The Unbreakable Nael Barghouti
The Unbreakable Nael Barghouti After 45 years in Israeli captivity, the longest-held Palestinian prisoner speaks about his fight for liberation: “We deserve a state under the sun.” Jeremy Scahill and Jawa Ahmad Jan 19 Drop Site is a reader-funded, independent news outlet. Without your support, we can’t operate. Please consider making a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible donation today . Nael Barghouti speaks at a Palestine conference in Istanbul on November 14, 2025. (Photo: Jeremy Scahill) “I never lost hope, and I never will,” said Nael Barghouti, a 68-year-old Palestinian from the occupied West Bank who spent more than four decades in Israeli captivity. It has been a year since Barghouti won his freedom through a prisoner exchange deal signed between Hamas and Israel in January 2025. As a condition of his release, Barghouti had to agree to go into exile and was deported to Egypt a month later. “I have been optimistic from the very first day I began my struggle,” he said. “In pr...