Published on August 23, 2026
A petition is making the rounds demanding Israel release Marwan Barghouti, former head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and the signatures keep coming: Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett, Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Ian McKellen, Tilda Swinton, Sting, Annie Lennox, Richard Branson, Margaret Atwood, Javier Bardem, Gary Lineker.
None of them mention what he was convicted of. I do, in the video.
I’ve spent years calling out Ben Gvir and Smotrich for their hateful rhetoric. I don’t give my own side a discount, so I’m not giving one to a man convicted of five murders, including at a bat mitzvah.
“But he’s the only alternative to Hamas,” a movement offering a choice between a mass murderer and a murderer of five is telling you something. So is every celebrity who signed without reading the verdict.