Top Palestinian MK to be indicted over Bil'in protest

Published yesterday (updated) 01/11/2009 21:02

Bethlehem – Ma’an/Agencies –

The Israeli occupation government attorney general decided on Sunday to indict Mohammed Barakah, a senior Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament (the Knesset in Hebrew), for allegedly assaulting a police officer during a demonstration against the illegal Israeli Land-Grab, Apartheid Wall in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

Barakah, the chairman of the Israeli Arab party Hadash is accused of striking an Israeli Prison Service officer during a protest in the village of Bil’in in 2005, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said.

The officer was taking a detained demonstrator to a police car at the time of the alleged assault, the newspaper said.

Israeli peace movement leader Uri Avnery described the incident in a May 2005 article, saying that soldiers fired tear gas before beating demonstrators. “MK Barakah had a heated exchange with an officer, and while they were arguing passionately, a soldier fired a gas grenade at point blank range between Barakah’s legs.”

“He was slightly wounded in the leg,” the article continues, “Another particularly ferocious soldier took hold of the poster I was holding in my hands – the Gush Shalom [Peace Bloc] sign of the flags of Israel and Palestine – and pushed me savagely, knocking me over.”

Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz reportedly considered also charging Barakah with “offending a public servant” and “issuing threats” at two other demonstrations in Tel Aviv against the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006.

After being informed of the expected charges by Knesset speaker Reuben Rivlin, Barakah said that the charges were politicized.

“This fabricated list [of charges] is related to political activity and participation in demonstrations which are the essence of political action, which are guaranteed by parliamentary immunity,” he said.

“The juridical advisor decided to collect the charges from four different events, places and dates in order to lengthen the list of charges,” added Barakah. He accused the attorney general of being a part of taking a “racist attitude toward Arabs.”

Barakah announced that he will not invoke parliamentary immunity and instead challenge the charges in court.