FRANCE: AZMI BISHARA, AN ARAB MEMBER OF THE ISRAELI KNESSET WHO IS BEING PROSECUTED IN ISRAEL ON POLITICAL CHARGES, HAS VOWED TO FIGHT BACK IN COURT

Record ID: 400441

  • Title: FRANCE: AZMI BISHARA, AN ARAB MEMBER OF THE ISRAELI KNESSET WHO IS BEING PROSECUTED IN ISRAEL ON POLITICAL CHARGES, HAS VOWED TO FIGHT BACK IN COURT
  • Date: 13th February 2002
  • Summary: (U6) PARIS, FRANCE (FEBRUARY 13, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SV/SLV/LV ISRAELI ARAB MEMBER OF KNESSET AZMI BISHARA ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE/PRESS CONFERENCE (3 SHOTS) 0.19 2. MCU (English) AZMI BISHARA SAYING: "Of course we are speaking of the rights of the Palestinians under the circumstances to resist the situation. To resist and struggle
  • Embargoed: 28th February 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVAEV0KNHA22A8OVJOYCXK6GVMOX
  • Story Text: Azmi Bishara, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset who
    is being prosecuted in Israel on political charges, has vowed
    to fight back in court.



    An Arab member of Israel's parliament charged with
    supporting the Lebanese Hizbollah guerrilla group denied the
    charges at a news conference in Paris on Wednesday (13
    February).

    Azmi Bishara, one of 12 Arab legislators in the 120-seat
    Knesset, vowed to fight the charges against him in court.

    After his indictment, which was preceded by the stripping of
    his parliamentary immunity, Bishara has repeatedly accused
    Israel of practising a policy of apartheid by trying to
    suppress the Arab minority's role in Israeli politics.

    He was quoted as calling, at a rally in an Israeli Arab
    town and at a Damascus memorial for former Syrian leader Hafez
    al-Assad, for Palestinians to emulate Hizbollah attacks
    against Israeli troops during their 22-year occupation in
    south Lebanon. "He verbally praised and encouraged violence
    that might cause the death or injury of a person," the
    indictment said.

    "Not only as a Palestinian, as somebody who belongs to the
    Palestinian people and the Arab nation, but also as a
    democrat, if I do not say that the Palestinians have a right
    to resist occupation, I betray my mission as a Parliament
    member and a democrat", he told journalists in Paris.

    Bishara, leader of the National Democratic Assembly party,
    is the first lawmaker in Israel to face prosecution for
    political actions. He is facing two charges -- one of
    supporting the pro-Iran Lebanese Hizbollah and the other of
    arranging visits to Syria.

    Israel and the U.S. State Department consider the pro-Iran
    Hizbollah a terrorist organisation, but it is seen in the Arab
    world as a group that waged a legitimate fight to end Israel's
    2-year occupation in south Lebanon.

    Under the second charge, Bishara was accused of failing to
    secure Israeli authorisation for "family reunification" visits
    to Syria that he arranged for Israeli Arabs. Israelis must
    obtain special permission from their government to visit
    Syria, officially regarded an enemy state.

    Only a handful of lawmakers have lost their parliamentary
    immunity in Israel's 53-year history, most so they could be
    prosecuted on charges of financial misconduct.

    Bishara said Israeli Jews were using his comments as a
    pretext to fight the growing identification of Israeli Arabs
    with their Palestinian brethren waging an uprising against
    Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

    He vowed to prove the charges were politically motivated
    to suppress the emergence of a nationalist movement among the
    Arab minority, which makes up some 18 percent of Israel's six
    million population.

    Bishara's case has fanned tensions between Israeli Arabs
    and the Jewish state, aggravated since police shot dead 13
    Israeli Arabs during pro-Palestinian demonstrations on October
    13, 2000.

    Israeli Arabs, who say they are Palestinians in Israel,
    have always complained of discrimination by the Jewish
    majority. They became citizens of Israel in 1948 after Israel
    was established on part of British mandate Palestine.

    "[The Israelies] want to limit and to cut the political
    participation of the Arabs in Israel, because they believe
    that the participation of Arabs in Israeli politics, which
    means equality, threatens the Jewish character of the State",
    Bishara told Reuters Television during an interview following
    his press conference.




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