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The Oppressor Charges The Oppressed For Mass Murder
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Marawan el Barghuti
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OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, April 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Palestinian resistance activist Marwan Barghuti will be tried in an Israeli court for the murder of "hundreds of Israelis", hawkish Israeli premier Ariel Sharon said Tuesday.
Sharon called Barghuti's capture on Monday in Ramallah "an extremely important success, without doubt one of the most important in our current military operation," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Asked why Barghuti had not been "eliminated" as many Palestinian resistance activists had been, Sharon said Israel is "a democratic state with the rule of law, which does not act thus when someone surrenders."
Earlier Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told CNN television that Israel intends to treat Barghuti, the West Bank chief of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement "according to the law."
"He'll have to prove his innocence. If he's not, he'll have to pay the legal cost," Peres said.
Barghuti, 42, was abducted in Ramallah Monday after being chased for four months.
He also has been seen as a successor to besieged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and the Palestinian Authority warned Israel Monday against harming him.
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Sharon
is accused by the International court of committing crimes
against humanity |
Barghuti’s wife in a televised interview with the Qatari based Al Jazeera satellite channel that she and his family haven’t seen Barghuti since the Israeli reoccupation of the villages of the West Bank in March 29, 2002.
“He used to call from time to time fearing the Israeli occupation forces who were coninuely trying to assassinate him,” Barghuti’s wife said, quoted by Al Jazeera channel.
“The Palestinians won’t be silent (on Israel’s continuous aggression) and won’t stop resisting the Israeli occupation until he gets his freedom,” she added.
Barghuti, who has a certificate in International affairs, is the secretary of the Palestinian resistance movement Fatah, and a member of the Palestinian legislative council and was targeted by Israel’s occupation army.
He is the spokesperson for the Palestinian resistance Intifada or uprising since its start 18 months ago.
It is note worthy that there is a case lodged against the hawkish Israeli premier accusing him of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The case lodged in Belgium on 18 June 2001 by 23 survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres charges Sharon, former Israeli defense minister and Israel's current prime minister, as well as other Israelis and Lebanese with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide related to the massacres committed between 16-18 September 1982 in two refugee camps in Beirut.
The central argument of the case hinges upon Ariel Sharon's Command Responsibility as General of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), which was in full control of Beirut when the massacres took place in the contiguous refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.
Although the killings of between 1000-2000 unarmed Lebanese and Palestinian civilians were carried out by Lebanese militia units affiliated directly or indirectly with the Israeli-backed Christian Lebanese Forces (the Phalange), the legal, military, and decision-making responsibility ultimately rests with Ariel Sharon under established and recognized principles of International Law.
The case attempts to realize and implement the principle of Universal Jurisdiction for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, which is enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention and International Customary Law. As such, this case represents just one of many recent attempts to challenge impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Other similar cases have seen war crimes charges brought against Rwandan officials, Chile's ex-president, General Augusto Pinochet; Chad's former president, Hissein Habre; and former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
With additional reporting by IOL correspondent in Occupied Palestine Maha Abdel Hadi
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