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Arab-Israeli MP Charged with Sympathy for Hizbollah
JERUSALEM, Nov.13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Azmi Bishara, a Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, was charged Monday by the Israeli government with "incitement to violence", news agencies reported Tuesday.
Bishara was charged in connection with speeches he delivered in Syria and at home, praising the Lebanese resistance for forcing the Israeli occupation army to withdrawal from south Lebanon in May of 2000.
Bishara proclaimed his innocence and vowed to prove it in court.
The charges were submitted in a Jerusalem court. A second indictment, for allegedly organizing illegal trips to Syria for Arab Israelis, was filed against Bishara in his hometown of Nazareth.
"Lebanon, the weakest of the Arab countries, has presented a tiny model from which ... we can draw the conclusions necessary for success and victory," Bishara said in a speech to Arab Israelis in May. "Hizbollah has won, and for the first time … we have known the taste of victory."
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli District Prosecutor Moshe Lador accused Bishara of "expressing verbal praise, sympathy and calls for support and aid" to the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbollah.
According to the allegations, Bishara "identified with the Hizbollah organization" and called for adopting its methods in the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.
"On these occasions," wrote Lador, as quoted by the Post, "the accused expressed before his listeners and via the media to the broad public in Israel and beyond the following positions, exhortations, and calls.
"Regarding the members of the Hizbollah, whom he called 'south Lebanese resistance fighters,' he praised them for their demonstrations of consistency and bravery, in his words - which led, in his view, to the defeat of Israel and the end of its control in southern Lebanon."
Bishara was accused of describing "what he regarded as the victory of Hizbollah over Israel in southern Lebanon." He is also alleged to have mentioned Hizbollah's "right to take pride in its achievement."
In June, at a conference of Arab leaders in Syria, Bishara expressed admiration for Hizbollah and praised Syria for supporting the Lebanese group during its war against the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon.
In the late 1990s, then U.S. ambassador to Lebanon David Satterfield also expressed support for Hizbollah saying their actions are "legitimate" and are not considered "terrorist" activities.
The Israeli indictments follow the removal of Bishara's parliamentary immunity last week. It was the first time ever an Israeli legislator was stripped of his immunity for stating his opinions.
Bishara said his statements in Syria were pacifist and that he has never in his life advocated violence.
The charges against the Arab-Israeli lawmaker are an Israeli government attempt to intimidate the Arab population and limit their participation in Israeli politics, Bishara told a news conference in the Palestinian city of Ramallah on Monday.
"They are trying to terrify Arab Israelis by attacking one of their leaders," he said.
Bishara and two of his parliamentary aides, Mussa Diab and Ashraf Kursam, were also charged with organizing trips to Syria for some 800 Israeli Arabs who did not have Interior Ministry permission to visit a "hostile" country, the
Post reported.
The charge of incitement carries a maximum penalty of three years in jail. The maximum jail term for organizing the visits to an enemy country is one year.
Bishara did not appear in court Monday. The prosecution merely filed the indictments at courts in occupied Jerusalem and Nazareth. Bishara will submit his plea on each charge at a later date.
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