DISPATCH FROM THE WEST BANK
Generations of a Palestinian family on mission to kill Israelis
The Barghoutis are defiant about their bloody history of conflict, despite the deaths and imprisonment of relatives. Their story shows how peace is a distant hope
Fakhri al-Barghouti and his niece Suheir display pictures of relatives who have either died or been imprisoned in the conflict, including Marwan Barghouti
The Times
They were a friendly pair of pensioners, who greeted their guests amiably and served tiny cups of Arabic coffee. So when one of them decided to re-enact how he stabbed a bus driver to death, his smile was disarming.
Fakhri al-Barghouti, now 70, served 34 years of a life term for that. But, he added, as he showed how he grabbed the driver’s gun with one hand and brought his knife down with the other, he had no regrets, none at all.
How about his 64-year-old niece, sitting next to him, a soft face in a light pink headscarf and black dress? Her feelings about her family’s chosen profession — killing Israelis — were more complex, but she was not going to disavow it.
To
