French Jewish Lawyer Joins Palestinian's Defense

[tandem]

fyi

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Tunisian-born Jewish lawyer who defended Algerians fighting French colonial rule said on Saturday she would help represent Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi on trial for murder in Israel.

Barghouthi, charismatic West Bank head of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, shouted in a rowdy court appearance on Thursday he did not recognize Israel's right to try him and that its occupation of Palestinian lands should be on trial instead.

Gisele Halimi, a 75-year-old French Jewish lawyer, said she met Barghouthi in prison for an hour on Friday and he agreed that she could defend him at his next court date on October 3.

She said she had studied his case and had not found evidence to back up the charges against him. Barghouthi has denied involvement in plotting suicide bombings that have marked the uprising for independence, describing himself as solely a political leader.

Halimi told a news conference she was drawn to defending Barghouthi because of his past advocating a "fraternal" solution to the Middle East conflict envisaging two peoples living peacefully in two neighboring states.

That vision fitted in with the values she developed as a Jew growing up in Tunisia, she said.

"I think there is nothing closer to a Tunisian Jew than a Tunisian Muslim, with their culture, their love of their country. I think that Israelis and Palestinians have similar things in common," said Halimi.

"They have common treasures (with which) they could live together in the future, but it's the future (still)."

Halimi heads a Paris-based group called Lawyers for Justice in the Middle East founded a few months ago to help uphold human rights and advance the cause of peace in the region.

MEETING PLO OFFICIALS

Halimi, along with French colleague Daniel Voguet and Barghouthi local attorney Jawad Boulos, discussed his case on Saturday with Palestinian parliament speaker Ahmed Korei and prominent Palestinian moderate Sari Nusseibeh, the ranking Palestine Liberation Organization official in Jerusalem.

Halimi made her mark in the legal profession representing people charged with resisting French rule in Algeria in North Africa next to her native Tunisia, that ended violently in 1962.

Israel is hoping the civilian court trial of Barghouthi, its first of a major player in the two-year-old Palestinian uprising, will help show Palestinian leadership complicity in militant violence against Israelis.

The judges did not ask Barghouthi to enter a plea during Thursday's brief hearing, his second in two months. On October 3 it will hear his claim Israel has no right to put him on trial.

Arguing that the court had no right to put him on trial, he declined legal counsel, either from a team of Arab-Israeli lawyers who defended him in pretrial hearings or by a state-appointed defense attorney.

[Vic]

Gisèle Halimi is one of the signatories of the (in)famous "Support Isarel? Not in my name" declaration by a group of French Jews. Engl. translation: http://www.al-bushra.org/hedchrch/support.html . There will be few positive surprises, I'm afraid. The dramaturgy is brilliant.

[NewsGuy]

It will take a lot more than the self-hating Halimi lawyer to wash the blood from Barghouti's hands.

But the Arabs have mastered the art of using traitorous Jews to cause the rest of Judaism and the State of Israel PR damage.

This Halimi is another PR pawn in the hands of the Arabs, but she and her puppet-masters will fail to clear this war criminal of his crimes against humanity.

[Vic]

Originally posted by NewsGuy
This Halimi is another PR pawn in the hands of the Arabs, but she and her puppet-masters will fail to clear this war criminal of his crimes against humanity.

To clear him in whose eyes? (Sorry for being so pessimistic)


-------------------------


A fine report and short analysis:

Background / A political bandwagon
By Moshe Gorali
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pa...ID=0&listSrc=Y


Sounds almost as if Barghouti and supporters are trying to re-enact the Georgi Dimitrov (Reichstag fire) trial ("In this trial, I am the prosecutor and the defendant is the government of Israel" is almost a quote): a dramatic illustration of the power of stereotypes, that, once exploited, go unquestioned by the majority of the spectators, regardless of the fact Barghouti is in essence the last person who has any claim to such illustrous company.

[Jay]

Originally posted by Vic
To clear him in whose eyes? (Sorry for being so pessimistic)


-------------------------


A fine report and short analysis:

Background / A political bandwagon
By Moshe Gorali
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pa...ID=0&listSrc=Y


Sounds almost as if Barghouti and supporters are trying to re-enact the Georgi Dimitrov (Reichstag fire) trial ("In this trial, I am the prosecutor and the defendant is the government of Israel" is almost a quote): a dramatic illustration of the power of stereotypes, that, once exploited, go unquestioned by the majority of the spectators, regardless of the fact Barghouti is in essence the last person who has any claim to such illustrous company.

Sounds like this guy is a poor lost soul at 75 years old who might be developing Alzsheimers. He too could be institutionalized by the courts as being non compos mentas.

[NewsGuy]

Originally posted by Vic
To clear him in whose eyes? (Sorry for being so pessimistic)

In the eyes of his fellow mass murderers and terrorism supporters, I suppose that Barghouti is a role model.

[Vic]

Originally posted by NewsGuy
In the eyes of his fellow mass murderers and terrorism supporters, I suppose that Barghouti is a role model.

But, sorry again for the pessimism, the target audience is what many Israelis call "the world". Will it let itself be convinced by solid evidence rather than a dramatic show? I'm afraid the answer is no, unless the Israeli side learns to abide by the rules of the show as well.

[Jay]

Originally posted by Vic
But, sorry again for the pessimism, the target audience is what many Israelis call "the world". Will it let itself be convinced by solid evidence rather than a dramatic show? I'm afraid the answer is no, unless the Israeli side learns to abide by the rules of the show as well.

Hey Vic;
I see that you are the typical European that is definitely pro-
Arab, and totally anti-semitic. Have any relatives that worked for Hitler? Just what has any jew ever done to you?

By the way, guess what fella: They play by the rules, the same rules that everyone else plays by only they do it better and beat the likes of you at your own game:But, they get their asses kicked because guys like you cant take being beaten at your own game, and the "sour grapes " attitude comes out. Like the saying oes"if you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen"

[Mediocrates]

Jay pls check your PM re: this message above.

[Vic]

Originally posted by Jay
Hey Vic;
I see that you are the typical European that is definitely pro-
Arab, and totally anti-semitic. Have any relatives that worked for Hitler? Just what has any jew ever done to you?

By the way, guess what fella: They play by the rules, the same rules that everyone else plays by only they do it better and beat the likes of you at your own game:But, they get their asses kicked because guys like you cant take being beaten at your own game, and the "sour grapes " attitude comes out. Like the saying oes"if you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen"

Don't take anything for granted, my dear.

Off-topic, but maybe we should start a thread on discussion culture. It's not the first time that some of my esteemed fellow posters react not to the actual contents but to the "location" entry, i.e. to the ISP's IP number. How about abolishing "location" altogether?

[Jay]

Originally posted by Vic


Don't take anything for granted, my dear.

Off-topic, but maybe we should start a thread on discussion culture. It's not the first time that some of my esteemed fellow posters react not to the actual contents but to the "location" entry, i.e. to the ISP's IP number. How about abolishing "location" altogether?

Like I said before, if you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen.

[Northlander]

My god. This Jay fellow is just to much.

Vic an anti-semite?
Stupidity is not even an excuse.

"if you cant take the heat, get out of the kitchen"

Haha, that is so funny man. And so smart. How did you get so smart?

[Mediocrates]

A product of Sweden's school system no doubt

[Northlander]

Impossible, we have 100% literacy.

[danholo]

Originally posted by Northlander
Impossible, we have 100% literacy.

Säkert?
Well, so do we.

Guys. Better not bad mouth Sweden. It's a great country and Stockholm is way cool... and there are plenty of Jews too.