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Israel as an occupation force has no right to try Barghuti
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TEL
AVIV, October 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - As the trial of
West Bank Fatah chief Marwan Barghuti reopens in Tel Aviv, the man
Israel claims is a “terrorist mastermind” is receiving
unexpected support from an Israeli Jewish lawyer. Meanwhile his lawyer
says the defense team was quitting the trial, accusing security men of
beating him and throwing him out of court as the hearing was about to
begin.
Shamai
Leibowitz, a 32-year-old lawyer who wears the Jewish kippa skullcap
and studied at Tel Aviv’s conservative Bar Ilan University, says he
joined the firebrand icon of the Intifada’s defense team for
Israel’s own good, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
To
sum up his position, he quotes his own grandfather, a famous Israeli
intellectual who once wrote: “The continued rule over millions of
people who are living without any rights under an occupation regime
will turn Israel into an apartheid state and will perpetuate a state
of terror.”
“And
all this has sadly become true,” says the young lawyer, who has only
been in the practice two years but looks poised to follow in the
footsteps of Yesha Ayahu Leibowitz, who was notorious for his pacifist
views after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in
1967.
“When
Barghuti explained his point of view that an Israeli court has no
jurisdiction to try him, I joined the team because I believe in the
truthfulness of this argument,” says Leibowitz, who joined the
defense after his first encounter with Barghuti.
“I
met a very sensible man, determined, and I clarified between us what
his struggle is about and when he persuaded me fully that this is not
a struggle to throw all the Jews in the ocean, but a struggle against
occupation, then I decided that I would join the team,” he explains.
Barghuti,
often tipped as a possible successor to Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat, has become a symbol of the Palestinian popular uprising, but
now faces various alleged charges by the Israeli occupation.
“The
ideas of my grandfather were not new to him. He was very happy that I
joined the team,” says the Tel Aviv criminal law attorney.
Before
he first met the man Israel accuses of heading the Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, an armed offshoot of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah group,
Leibowitz admits he “had a bad feeling.”
“I
am influenced by the Israeli media, portraying him as a terrorist who
enjoys seeing Israeli buses blown up and wants to kill as many Jews as
possible,” says Leibowitz, himself an Orthodox Jew.
He
thinks quite differently of the Palestinian lawmaker now: “Marwan
reminds me of Moses,” he says.
“The
Palestinian struggle for freedom is a mirror image of the
Israelites’ struggle for freedom under the Egyptian rule,” he
explains.
“Moses
was a freedom fighter,” he adds.
“But
the Bible teaches us that once Pharaoh finally understood that he
could not continue to force people into submission, there was quiet in
Egypt. That’s the lesson we should learn.”
Leibowitz,
a reserve tank gunner in the army, has already announced he would
refuse to serve in the Palestinian territories and has become one of
the most prominent supporter of the refuseniks’ cause.
Mainly
for two reasons, he says: “I will not be part of the occupation,
holding innocent people under closure, because it is only worsening
Israel's security and because it is a blatant violation of
international law and of our own basic moral standards.”
Leibowitz
insists he is not attempting to restore the international image of
Israel in the Barghuti case, which is arousing growing criticism
abroad.
“The
question here is how we look at ourselves in the mirror. What are all
the Jewish institutions worth if they come at the expense of the
Palestinian people and cause human suffering to millions of innocent
people?”
“I
will do everything in my power to convince the judge that Israel’s
best interest is to release Marwan immediately.”
Meanwhile,
a lawyer for Barghuti said Thursday the defense team was
quitting the trial, accusing security men of beating him and throwing
him out of court as the hearing was about to begin.
“We
are withdrawing from this trial. We will not let the Israelis use this
court any more for their campaign against the Palestinian people,”
said lawyer Khader Shkeirat outside the court building.
“They
did not let me see Marwan and they threw me out of court and beat me
up,” he added, looking shocked.
However,
inside the courtroom the main defense lawyer, Jawad Bouloss, continued
to argue that Israel had violated agreements with the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) in kidnapping Barghuti from a zone
deemed a Palestinian autonomous area.
Israeli
troops captured Barghuti in April in Ramallah after the army
re-invaded almost the entire West Bank to stamp out militant groups
which had been attacking its citizens, including the Al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades which Israel accuses Barghuti of heading.
Shkeirat
had a heated shouting match with Danny Seamann, the head of the
Israeli government press office, AFP said.
“You
are a criminal because your mother brought you into this world. You
are a killer,” shouted Seamann.
“No,
you are a killer, we are freedom fighters,” responded Shkeirat, who
told the press: “I am declaring on behalf of Marwan Barghuti and all
my colleagues, this is the last time we’re coming here.”
Foreign
ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled “denied” that Shkeirat had been
roughed up and thrown out, but said room in the court was “extremely
limited.”
Seamann
also denied that Shkeirat had been beaten by security officials and
accused him of trying to smuggle into the court room an
“anti-Israeli document” that had been distributed outside by
Michael Tirazi, a U.S. citizen and legal advisor to the PLO.
