Trial of Palestinian Plays to World Jury

If there were any doubts that the mass-murder trial of Marwan Barghouti is aimed at multiple audiences, the fiery Palestinian leader dispelled them in no time.

Speaking in Arabic, Hebrew and English, Barghouti on Wednesday made his first public appearance in four months and defiantly told prosecutors, and the world, that the Palestinian uprising will live on.

So began the first trial of a senior Palestinian militant in nearly two years of raging conflict. As head of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement in the West Bank, Barghouti acted as the principal field marshal in months of violent and nonviolent confrontations with the Israelis. His popularity is second only to that of Arafat, president of the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli soldiers captured Barghouti on April 15 during an invasion of the West Bank city of Ramallah after a surge in Palestinian suicide bombings. He claims he has been held in solitary confinement for nearly 100 days, subjected to intense interrogation while forced to sit in a cramped position, and deprived of sleep.

In a Tel Aviv courtroom Wednesday, a bearded Barghouti, 43, appeared to have lost weight but otherwise seemed fit. He repeatedly raised his handcuffed hands, gesturing triumph, and spouted speeches rapid-fire until guards twice dragged him away.

“The intifada will win,” Barghouti said in Hebrew, calling out to the gaggle of reporters who crowded into the courtroom and leaped over benches to get a closer look. In Arabic, he said: “I’ll keep fighting on until I get my freedom. You cannot break the intifada with occupation.”

Asked how he felt, Barghouti, dressed in prison browns, said, “Baruch Hashem, beseder,” or “Praise God, I’m OK,” using an expression in Hebrew common among religious Jews.

Israeli officials presented a thick, detailed indictment against Barghouti, accusing him of “initiating, planning or financing 37 terrorist attacks” that caused the deaths of dozens of Israelis. He is charged with murder, attempted murder, incitement to murder and membership in a terrorist organization, among other counts. The maximum penalty he could face is life in prison.

Israeli prosecutors accuse Barghouti of directing the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed militia affiliated with Fatah that has killed numerous Israelis in shootings and suicide bombings. Barghouti has denied the charges and says he is only a politician.

For both Israel and Barghouti, the trial is much more than a legal proceeding.

Israel, buffeted by criticism from the international human rights community over its treatment of Palestinians, is eager to present itself as a lawful nation that can provide a just trial even to a man it regards as a terrorist.

Although Palestinians accused of armed actions against Israelis normally are prosecuted before a military tribunal, in mostly closed sessions, Barghouti’s trial is taking place in a civilian court. Atty. Gen. Elyakim Rubinstein ordered the change so that the proceedings could receive full media coverage and international observance. Also, by trying Barghouti in this venue, Israel can emphasize that many of his alleged victims were civilians, not soldiers.

“He will get the fairest trial that anyone could dream of,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir. “This will show that the Israeli legal system is above politics, and everything will be judged on the merits. And if he is convicted, Barghouti can appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court.”

“This is a show trial,” countered one of Barghouti’s attorneys, Jawad Boulos.

Israel also hopes to use the litany of charges against Barghouti to further discredit and delegitimize Arafat, painting the entire Palestinian leadership with the same bloody brush. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has worked systematically to decapitate the Palestinian Authority and wants to bolster its case here.

Similarly, Barghouti wants to put Israel on trial. Though the court undoubtedly will limit the scope of what he can place into evidence, he hopes to shift the spotlight to Israel’s 35-year-old occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“We will try to convince the world that the one which has to be brought to trial is the occupation and those who have committed so many crimes” against Palestinians, Boulos said.

Israel’s imprisonment and prosecution of Barghouti could ultimately backfire by handing him a platform and making him a martyr for the Palestinian nationalist cause.

Though Israelis don’t see it this way, Barghouti is considered a moderate in the Palestinian milieu. He favors a peace in which Israel and Palestine live side by side, although in the last two years he has been increasingly willing to use violence to achieve that goal.

His popularity has risen since his capture. His picture has been plastered all over cities such as Ramallah, and his wife, Fadwa, just completed a tour of Arab countries to drum up support.

For some Palestinians, it is required of their leaders that they spend time in an Israeli prison--where Barghouti said he has been reading Hebrew-language newspapers.

“Israelis are just making a hero out of him. A legend, actually,” said Nader Said, a sociologist and pollster at Birzeit University in Ramallah. With Barghouti removed from the Palestinian political scene, Said argued, more hard-line Islamic militants are supplanting the secular nationalists that Barghouti led and galvanized.

At Wednesday’s court hearing, Barghouti’s attorneys also argued that the Israeli judiciary has no jurisdiction over their client, that he was “kidnapped” from Palestinian-controlled territory and that he does not recognize the laws “of the occupier.”

Devora Chen, the lead prosecutor, said Israeli jurisdiction applies because Barghouti’s many alleged victims were Israelis and many were killed in Israel proper. She told Judge Tzvi Gurfinkel that the prosecution will present testimony from some of Barghouti’s top lieutenants who also have been captured, as well as documents the army seized in raids on Arafat’s headquarters and other Palestinian Authority locations.

Chen also said Barghouti’s confessions will be used against him. Barghouti and his attorneys have denied that he made any confessions. “According to our view, he is responsible for all acts of those who were under him,” Chen said.

In the 18-page indictment, Israel alleges that Barghouti was a “decision-maker” in a network of “terror organizations” headed ultimately by Arafat. He obtained large sums of money from Arafat and bought weapons and explosives that were used to kill or wound hundreds of Israelis, according to the indictment.

As the 20-minute hearing was winding down, Barghouti said he wanted to bring his own “50-count indictment” against Israel “for the bloodshed of both peoples.”

Gurfinkel told him that his time to speak would come later, but he also warned that he would not permit the defense to “turn this court into a political stage.”