By Ali Sawafta
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – The longest-serving Palestinian inmate in Israeli jail, revered by militants as the “dean” of their prisoners, is among more than 200 Palestinians set to be deported under the Gaza ceasefire and hostages-for-prisoners swap.
Nael Barghouti, 67, has spent 44 years incarcerated by Israel, more than any other Palestinian. Jailed in 1978 for killing an Israeli bus driver, he was freed in 2011 in a previous swap but re-arrested three years later and held ever since.
Israel has said that Palestinians who have been convicted of killing Israelis must be permanently deported if they are freed under the Gaza ceasefire agreement, and will not be allowed to return to homes in the occupied West Bank.
Barghouti is one of 217 prisoners on a list from the Israeli justice ministry, cited by the Palestinian prisoners’ association, of those to be sent abroad.
His wife Eman Nafe, herself a former prisoner…
