Welcome to Hard Talk from the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

My guest today is a young man whose life has been shaped by an absence.

Since he was 11 years old, Arab Barguti has lived without his father.

Not that his father Marwan is dead, he is alive but imprisoned in Israel,

convicted of multiple terrorist murders by a court

whose legitimacy the Barguti family will never recognize. The political power of Marwan Barguti's

name has not faded in the 20 years he's been incarcerated. Going back to the 1980s, he was a charismatic young leader in the

West Bank, a man who publicly stated his commitment to a two-state solution and made a point of

building relationships with Israelis, but who refused to compromise on the right of Palestinians

to resist military occupation by force if necessary.

Today he is widely seen as the one leader capable of unifying his people,

ending the long-running feud between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza,

but only if he ever gets out of prison. And the government of bin Yamin Netanyahu

shows no inclination of contemplating such a move, even as part of a deal to get the remaining

Israeli hostages out of Gaza. Arab Barguti hasn't been allowed to visit his father since

Hamas's October 7th attack on southern Israel.

The prospects for dialogue and a compromise peace between Israel and the Palestinians have never looked bleaker.

So has all hope been extinguished inside the Barguti family?

Well, Arab Barguti joins me now on the line from Ramallah. Welcome to Hard Talk.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a great pleasure to talk to you today. Let us start with the

situation your father is in. I believe you were 11 years old when your father was taken by the Israelis.

He's been imprisoned inside Israel ever since. I know your family

...