Hollywood Celebrities Back Convicted Terrorist Murderer
More than 20 Marvel actors are demanding the release of Marwan Barghouti, a convicted terrorist serving five life sentences for murders, falsely portraying him as a political prisoner.
The celebrity roster includes Mark Ruffalo, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, and Tilda Swinton, all of whom have signed onto the effort characterizing Barghouti as a Palestinian political prisoner unjustly held by Israel.
The reality could not be more different. Marwan Barghouti, the convicted head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, sits in an Israeli prison not for his political views or writings, but because he was found guilty of five murders, attempted murder, and membership in a terrorist organization following a fair trial in an Israeli civilian court. He received five life sentences.
The Victims Hollywood Ignores
The five murder convictions carry names and faces that the Hollywood activists appear unwilling to acknowledge. Georgios Tsibouktzakis, a 35-year-old Greek Orthodox monk and priest, was shot and killed while driving near Jerusalem in June 2001. Yoela Hen, 45, an American citizen and mother of two, was murdered in a shooting at a gas station near Givat Ze’ev in January 2002.
Three more victims were killed at Tel Aviv’s Seafood Market restaurant in March 2002: Eli Dahan, 53; Yosef Habi, 52; and Sgt.-Maj. Salim Barakat, 33, a Druze Israeli police officer who confronted the attacker.
An American citizen. A Christian priest. A Druze policeman. Jews and non-Jews alike—all murdered by terrorists acting on Barghouti’s orders.
A Fair Trial That Examined Evidence
The Israeli court conducted something the Marvel celebrities seem incapable of: a careful examination of evidence. Barghouti was actually acquitted of 21 other murder charges involving 33 additional attacks because prosecutors failed to establish his responsibility to the required legal standard. The court convicted him only where evidence proved his responsibility beyond reasonable doubt, and acquitted him where it did not.
Yet these Hollywood actors insist on comparing Barghouti to Nelson Mandela—a comparison that stands as an insult to history.
The Mandela Comparison Falls Apart
While Mandela was no pacifist and supported armed struggle against South African apartheid, even helping establish uMkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress, there exists a fundamental moral difference between targeting infrastructure and the deliberate murder of innocent civilians.
Mandela targeted infrastructure. Barghouti’s convictions arose from terrorist attacks deliberately targeting civilians during a campaign that included suicide bombings on civilian buses and attacks on restaurants, schools, and shopping centers.
Even left-leaning Human Rights Watch documented this reality in their 2002 report titled “Erased in a Moment,” which examined Palestinian suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. The organization concluded that the pattern of deliberate attacks constituted crimes against humanity. Amnesty International similarly condemned the deliberate killings of Israeli civilians by Palestinian armed groups as crimes against humanity.
Limousine Liberals Disconnected From Reality
The Marvel campaign exposes a familiar pattern: wealthy, privileged celebrities insulated from the consequences of the causes they champion. These actors have spent their careers playing superheroes on screen but demonstrate remarkably little knowledge about the history they now attempt to rewrite.
They pronounce moral judgments on a complex conflict from the comfort of movie studio trailers, having no personal stake and, based on this campaign, very little understanding of the actual facts.
These celebrities do not have to face the widows, parents, and orphans of the five people whose murders led to Barghouti’s convictions. They do not have to explain why their loved ones’ killer deserves freedom. They simply sign a petition.
Israel Must Stand Firm
Israel must never release Marwan Barghouti—not because Hollywood activists demand it, not because they have constructed a fictional heroic biography for him, and not because his name has been attached to a convenient political narrative.
A man convicted of murdering five people, including an American citizen, cannot be transformed into a symbol of peace simply because red carpet revolutionaries have decided to make him one.
Before demanding Barghouti’s release, these Marvel franchise actors should take one simple step: read the court documents. Read the names of the five people he was convicted of murdering. Read the evidence. Only then might they understand the gravity of what they are advocating.
With information from New York Post
