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20-01-03, 12:10
Barghouthi Renews Refusal to Recognize Israel’s Authority to Try Him!

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"I am fighting for the rights of my people against the cruel occupation .. I won’t answer questions. No one represents me. This court represents the power of the occupation .."

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - Jailed Palestinian Parliament member and Fatah leader in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Marwan Barghouti, who was illegally kidnapped by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) from Ramallah in April last year, has reconfirmed his refusal to recognize Israel’s authority to put him on trial.

Tel Aviv District Court on Sunday rejected a petition by Barghouti challenging Israel’s authority to put him on trial, and set April 06 as the date on which the trial will begin.

“I am fighting for the rights of my people against the cruel occupation,” he said at Sunday’s hearing, which lasted less than half an hour. “I won’t answer questions. No one represents me. This court represents the power of the occupation.”

Barghouti is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and Fatah-Tanzim leader in the West Bank. IOF have kidnapped him on Monday, 15 April 2002.

His trial opened last October, but has mostly consisted of pretrial motions. These included a petition by Barghouthi to have the charges against him dismissed on the basis that as an elected member of Palestinian parliament and a political leader he cannot be tried in another country.

The Tel Aviv District Court brushed aside Barghouti’s contention and set a trial date beginning April 06 on charges of involvement in the killing of 26 people in “terrorist” attacks.

Devora Chen, the prosecutor, said that the Jewish state expected a lengthy trial of perhaps 14 days and intended to call as many as 100 witnesses and present evidence seized from Palestinian National Authority (PNA) offices by the IOF.

Chen said she would call some 100 witnesses, including police officers, soldiers, and members of the Shin Bet security service before the court, which would hold 14 all-day sessions.

“We need to bring a lot of witnesses since he refuses to cooperate,” Chen told reporters.

Although Barghouti argues that the Palestinian people have the right to use force in resisting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he continues to back an eventual peace agreement that would have a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel.

Barghouti refused to be represented by a lawyer appointed by the occupying power.

Judge Sara Sirota, presiding over a three-judge panel, dismissed his arguments in a 34-page opinion. She also ruled that he would be represented by an Israeli public defender, saying, “It can’t be that no one here represents you. This is the law.”

Sirota told Barghouti, “We have decided when to begin hearing testimony, from the morning of 6 April.”

The three-judge panel did not immediately give reasons for the ruling.

But Barghouti again said he did not recognize the court’s power. “The state of Israel doesn’t have the right to try me or accuse me,” he said.

“I am fighting for the rights of my people against the cruel occupation,” insisted Barghouti, who earlier protested having to sit in court with his hands bound. “We have the right to fight the occupation to free Palestinians and bring peace to both sides.”

Barghouti, 43, appeared in the court handcuffed and in prison uniform.

“The uprising will win ,” he added, referring to the more than two-year-old Palestinian Intifadah for self-determination and independence.

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The uprising will win