Barghouti Indicts Israel at Trial, Occupation Forces Kill Palestinian Vender in Jenin

04/10/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Barghouti's Jewish Lawyer Compares Client to Moses [PBUH]||3rd Court Appearance Light on Legal Content, Heavy with Staging, Tension & Drama||Next Court Session Set for Nov. 21st ||Lawyers Distribute 54-count Indictment Listing Israel's Crimes against Humanity & Palestinians in Particular||Trial Appears to be Set to Stage Arafat as Being Israel's Real Target||Israel Admits Practicing Arafat Expulsion Operation & Critics Warn Move, if Undertaken, Would Set off Violence, Hand Power to Palestinian Resistance Activists & Diplomatically Isolate Israel||Occupation Forces Kill Palestinian Vender in Jenin & Demolishe House of Relatives of a Late Palestinian Resistance Man in Gaza|| STORY: Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti used his murder trial Thursday to attack Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, setting off fistfights among spectators as his defense team distributed a mock indictment of Israel and his Jewish lawyer compared him to Moses [PBUH].

Barghouti, a key West Bank leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, is the highest-ranking Palestinian to be put on trial in Israel. His third court appearance was light on legal content, but heavy with staging, tension and drama.

Israel accuses Barghouti of orchestrating terror attacks that killed 26 Israelis, ranging in age from 8 months to 79 years. Barghouti insists he is a politician and is not connected with violence.

TRIAL APPEARS SET UP TO STAGE ARAFAT AS ISRAEL'S REAL TARGET

In the legal proceedings, the judge gave the two sides six weeks to prepare arguments about the Israeli court's jurisdiction - which Barghouti has challenged - and set the next court session for Nov. 21.

Defying howls of derision from relatives of Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks, Barghouti made clenched-fist and V-for-Victory signs as he entered the courtroom, shackled and handcuffed.

"Murderer!" one of the protesters shouted. "You killed my son!" shouted another.

"I am a freedom fighter," Barghouti retorted. "Peace will win."

Outside, Barghouti's aide distributed a document presented as a 54-count "indictment," listing alleged Israeli crimes against humanity in general and the Palestinians in particular, as Israelis and Palestinians scuffled.

Barghouti's newest lawyer, Shamai Leibowitz, an Orthodox Jew, told the court the prosecution of Barghouti is a violation of Jewish law and morality. Leibowitz is a grandson of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the Torah scholar who spoke out stridently against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

He submitted a page from the book of Exodus into evidence and told the judge that Barghouti was acting like Moses when the biblical figure killed an Egyptian because he was beating a Jewish slave. This was an act of resistance to the Egyptian occupation, Leibowitz said.

"Yes, but Moses didn't kill two other Egyptians," said Judge Zvi Gurfinkel, alluding to Palestinian bombing and shooting attacks on Jewish civilians.

While Barghouti is the defendant, the Israeli indictment charges that Arafat was aware of his activities, setting the Palestinian leader up as the real Israeli target.

OCCUPATION ARMY ADMITS PRACTICING ARAFAT EXPULSION OPERATION

Israeli occupation sources confirmed for the first time Thursday that the Israeli military has practiced expelling Arafat to a neighboring country, a move the Israeli government believes would encourage emergence of a moderate Palestinian leadership. Critics warn it would set off violence, hand power to Palestinian Resistance activists and diplomatically isolate Israel.

Though he has supported expelling Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has not given the order, which could set off a storm of violence and diplomatic condemnation.

The security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said commando units practiced a scenario of bursting into Arafat's office, abducting him, stuffing him into a helicopter and whisking him off to a remote part of an unnamed Arab country.

Arafat has pledged to resist deportation, even if he is killed in battle.

In a 10-day siege that ended Sunday under intense U.S. pressure, Israeli bulldozers knocked down many of the buildings in the city-block-sized compound, trapping Arafat inside part of his office. Though the security sources did not make the connection, the destruction of the other buildings would make it easier for Israeli commandos to find Arafat and spirit him away.

The sources said the commando unit had been placed on standby three times in recent months, including after a Resistance bombing attack that killed 29 people celebrating the Jewish holiday of Passover in March.

OCCUPATION FORCES KILL PALESTINIAN VENDER IN JENIN & DEMOLISH HOUSE OF RELATIVES OF A LATE PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE MAN IN GAZA

Also Thursday, a Palestinian vendor was shot and killed in the West Bank town of Jenin by Israeli occupation troops enforcing a curfew, and in Gaza, occupation soldiers tore down the house of relatives of a late Palestinian Resistance man who carried out a shooting attack on an internationally illegal Jewish settlement several months ago.

PHOTO CAPTION

Marwan Barghouti, a prominent leader in the Palestinian uprising, raises his handcuffed hands as he enters the courtroom prior to his murder trial in Tel Aviv October 3, 2002. (Eitan Hess-Ashkenazi, Pool/Reuter