 |
|
"What
is happening to Barghouti is exactly the same as what happened
to me": Mandela
|
TEL
AVIV, August 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In a major
embarrassment to Israel, Nelson Mandela has agreed to observe the
trial of resistance Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, formally indicted
Wednesday, August 14, on alleged charges of terrorism.
A
lawyer for Barghouti, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council
and Secretary General of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah
movement in the West Bank, revealed he had been in South Africa last
week to invite the former president to the trial, the British daily
newspaper, the Guardian reported Thursday, August 15.
"He
said he was enthusiastic about coming," Khader Shkirat said. He
quoted South Africa's most famous political prisoner as saying:
"What is happening to Barghouti is exactly the same as what
happened to me. The government tried to de-legitimize the African
National Congress and its armed struggle by putting me on trial."
Barghouti
was arrested in April and is the first senior Palestinian to be put in
the dock in the two years of the Intifada, or uprising against Israeli
occupation.
 |
|
"The
Intifada will win": Barghouti
|
The
trial is bound to raise emotions on both sides of the
Israeli-Palestinian divide and is seen as a high-risk gamble by Israel
to try to paint Barghouti and President Arafat as directly linked to
the retaliatory suicide bombings and other attacks inside Israel, said
the Guardian.
Barghouti
is a Palestinian national hero, second only to Arafat in popularity,
and the trial is expected to give him even more support. His lawyers
hope to use the trial to expose Israeli atrocities and show the real
face of the Israeli occupation.
Raising
his handcuffed arms in his first public court appearance Wednesday at
the district court in Tel Aviv, Barghouti told Israeli reporters in
Hebrew: "The Intifada will win." In English, he went on:
"I am a peaceful man. I was trying to do everything for peace
between the two peoples. I believe the best solution is two states for
two peoples.".
