Born in Shefa-'Amr, Barakeh studied mathematics at Tel Aviv University. In that time, he had formed extensive political partnerships and personal friendships with Jewish fellow students, many of which continue up to the present. The rented apartment where he lived for many years on top of an old building at Rothschild Boulevard in downtown Tel Aviv was a well-known rendezvous for political meetings and also the venue of sometimes boisterous student parties lasting deep into the night. Among numerous other political actions, the first demonstration against the 1982 Lebanon War, held on the war's third day, 7 June 1982, and dispersed by police, was planned at a dramatic meeting held in Barakeh's Tel Aviv apartment.