Who doesn’t remember the picture: a Jew is put on trial in Moscow as a Zionist spy. Familymembers 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, andwith 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 dueto be heard in the District Court. Barghouti, a prominent political personality, has beenknown for years as the leader of Arafat’s Fatah movement on the West Bank. After Oslo, heparticipated in many peace demonstrations. He was kidnapped by the IDF and put on trial as aterrorist. 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. Allthe members of the public had been evicted, because inside a briefing of security personnelwas taken place. I had a peek at dozens of security people and others inside the room. Theyobviously were planning what was about to happen.
In the meantime, a crowd had assembled in front of the door. The security people orderedeveryone 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 hadlists 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 theGovernment Press Office (a branch of the Prime Minister’s office). A few diplomats and aKnesset 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 andtrained, that specializes in extremely vociferous Arab-bashing demonstrations. Often,the “victims” appear side by side with the rowdies of Kach – an outlawed Jewish terroristgroup. The “victim’s organization” represents, of course, only a tiny part of the tens ofthousands of families hurt by the violence, who belong to all segments of society. Suicidebombers 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 allowedinto the courtroom. I am a journalist. For some fifty years a have held a press card issued by theGovernment Press Office. I am also a former Knesset member. No matter, for two and a half hours Istood in front of the barrier, crowed in on all sides, unable to move, hardly breathing in thestifling heat, while the members of the “Victim’s Organization” passed by me, holding foldedposters and large photos. Around me there were lawyers, peace activists, foreignjournalists and ordinary spectators.
In Israel and around the word people saw what happened in the courtroom: When Barghouti wasbrought 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 inadvance by the Sharon government.
The aim was clear. One of the participants, a man called Swiri, confessed to it candidly wheninterviewed 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 theaccused even before the start of the trial. The principle, that every person is presumedinnocent until proven guilty in a proper trial, is not recognized by them. It certainly doesnot 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 thewhole “trial” is nothing but a propaganda exhibition, a show-trial of the sort that used to beassociated with Fascist and Communist regimes.
The pre-planned riot took place in a court. The Court Guard, which includes many SecurityService agents, took part in the organization of the show, which was orchestrated by the PrimeMinister’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 thisdebasement was inevitable. After the decisions of the Supreme Court approving torture(“moderate physical pressure”), exiling and demolishing the homes of relatives of suicidebombers, holding kidnapped people as “bargaining chips” (Sheikh Obeid and Dirani), this isanother inevitable stage. It adds to the price of the occupation and the intifada: in thisfield, too, we are descending into the Third World.
Israeli TV channels gave much prominence to the riot in the courtroom, without reporting howit was planned and orchestrated. And no wonder: what is happening now to the courts has alreadyhappened 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 appearson TV almost every day, speaking at length to the nation. Each such “event” is meticulouslyplanned and directed by his spin doctors. He appears among soldiers, against a background oftanks, 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 theintifada.
Every day one minister is invited, in his turn, to a long TV interview, explaining thegovernment’s and his own immense achievements. For the sake of balance, a right-wingpolitician is often confronted with an extreme-right-wing colleague. Sometimes, but onfewer and fewer occasions, a “leftist” is called in for alibi purposes, and is allowed to uttera 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’sdemocracy”.