Another Kangaroo Trial In The "Brave Little Democracy"

Uri Avnery 5.9.02 What a Show! Who doesn’t remember the picture: a Jew is put on trial
in Moscow as a Zionist spy. Family members and friends come to observe the trial but are
turned away. No place left, they are told, all the seats have already been taken. And
indeed, KGB agents have filled the hall early, and with the entrance of the accused start to
shout: “Traitor!” “Spy!” “Kill him!” The day before yesterday I witnessed something
frighteningly similar in Tel-Aviv. The prosecution’s request to keep Marwan Barghouti in
prison till the end of his trial was due to be heard in the District Court. Barghouti, a
prominent political personality, has been known for years as the leader of Arafat’s Fatah
movement on the West Bank. After Oslo, he participated in many peace demonstrations.
He was kidnapped by the IDF and put on trial as a terrorist. Gush Shalom activists and
others decided to attend and observe the proceedings. I arrived two hours early, but was
not allowed into the courtroom, in spite of my press card. All the members of the public
had been evicted, because inside a briefing of security personnel was taken place. I had a
peek at dozens of security people and others inside the room. They obviously were
planning what was about to happen. In the meantime, a crowd had assembled in front of
the door. The security people ordered everyone to descend one floor and erected a barrier
at the foot of the steps. Behind it, security people and officials of the Prime Minister’s
office took up positions. They had lists in their hands. “Only people who appear on the
lists will be allowed in!” they announced. Who did enter? A number of journalists and TV
teams, according to a list prepared by the Government Press Office (a branch of the Prime
Minister’s office). A few diplomats and a Knesset member. Apart from those, only people
appearing on the list provided by the “Organization of Terror Victims”. This is an innocent
name for a well-known group: a radical right-wing body, well organized and trained, that
specializes in extremely vociferous Arab-bashing demonstrations. Often, the “victims”
appear side by side with the rowdies of Kach – an outlawed Jewish terrorist group. The
“victim’s organization” represents, of course, only a tiny part of the tens of thousands of
families hurt by the violence, who belong to all segments of society. Suicide bombers do
not differentiate between leftists and rightists, Jewish and Arab citizens. Apart from the
members of this organization, no one – not one single person!!! – was allowed into the
courtroom. I am a journalist. For some fifty years a have held a press card issued by the
Government Press Office. I am also a former Knesset member. No matter, for two and a
half hours I stood in front of the barrier, crowed in on all sides, unable to move, hardly
breathing in the stifling heat, while the members of the “Victim’s Organization” passed by
me, holding folded posters and large photos. Around me there were lawyers, peace
activists, foreign journalists and ordinary spectators. In Israel and around the word people
saw what happened in the courtroom: When Barghouti was brought in, the public inside
started a riot, waving placards and pictures and shouting “Murderer!” “Terrorist!” “Kill
him!” It looked like the circus in ancient Rome or a lynch mob. People seeing this on TV
had no way of knowing that this was a show planned and organized well in advance by the
Sharon government. The aim was clear. One of the participants, a man called Swiri,
confessed to it candidly when interviewed on TV: “I wanted the world to see the victims
of this murderer, Barghouti!” Meaning: the participants in the riot had not come to see
and listen. They have convicted the accused even before the start of the trial. The
principle, that every person is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a proper trial, is
not recognized by them. It certainly does not apply to Palestinians. The very decision to
stuff the hall with “terror victims”, to the exclusion of everybody else, amounts to a
conviction in advance. The victims versus the perpetrator. This means that the whole
“trial” is nothing but a propaganda exhibition, a show-trial of the sort that used to be
associated with Fascist and Communist regimes. The pre-planned riot took place in a
court. The Court Guard, which includes many Security Service agents, took part in the
organization of the show, which was orchestrated by the Prime Minister’s office. It is hard
to believe that all this happened without the knowledge – and, indeed, the cooperation - of
the court. This puts the whole justice system, once the pride of Israel, to shame. But
probably this debasement was inevitable. After the decisions of the Supreme Court
approving torture (”moderate physical pressure”), exiling and demolishing the homes of
relatives of suicide bombers, holding kidnapped people as “bargaining chips” (Sheikh
Obeid and Dirani), this is another inevitable stage. It adds to the price of the occupation
and the intifada: in this field, too, we are descending into the Third World. Israeli TV
channels gave much prominence to the riot in the courtroom, without reporting how it
was planned and orchestrated. And no wonder: what is happening now to the courts has
already happened to TV. Since Ariel Sharon recently took direct control over the
electronic media, everybody can see the result with his or her own eyes. Like the late
Stalin, Sharon now appears on TV almost every day, speaking at length to the nation.
Each such “event” is meticulously planned and directed by his spin doctors. He appears
among soldiers, against a background of tanks, in the company of children, at meetings of
bereaved parents, at memorial ceremonies. Never with the jobless in Yerucham or the
hungry families in Dimona, who pay the price of the intifada. Every day one minister is
invited, in his turn, to a long TV interview, explaining the government’s and his own
immense achievements. For the sake of balance, a right-wing politician is often confronted
with an extreme-right-wing colleague. Sometimes, but on fewer and fewer occasions, a
“leftist” is called in for alibi purposes, and is allowed to utter a few sentences about peace,
before he is interrupted by angry shouts. What a show! This is how the “only democracy
in the Middle East” looks now. Once this was called a “people’s democracy”.