This Week

Siding With The Enemy

Strident Israeli Arabs, highly public remarks, lead to indictment.

LARRY DERFNER
Israel Correspondent

Jerusalem
srael's 1 million Arab citizens
have been going through a
process of radicalization for the
last generation, but since the
Palestinian intifada (uprising) broke
out nearly 14 months ago, that process
has taken a bitter leap forward.
Days after the intifada began and
rioting Palestinians were shot to death
by Israeli troops, Arabs across the
Galilee began rioting themselves, and
13 were killed by police. In a few cases
since then, Arab citizens of Israel,
nearly all Islamic fundamentalists,
have been involved in terror attacks. .
At the same time, the public state-
ments of Israeli Arab leaders have
become more extreme. Expressions of
support for the intifada have become
almost commonplace. But what
Knesset Member Azmi Bishara said
and did was unprecedented.
"Hezbollah won, and for the first time
since 1967, we tasted the flavor of victo-
ry Hezbollah has the right to flaunt its
achievement and humiliate Israel."
This is a highlight of the speech
Bishara gave on June 5, 2000 — a
week-and-a-half after Israel's pullout
from Lebanon. He spoke at a celebra-
tion thrown by his political party in
the capital of Israeli Arab radicalism,
Umm el-Fahm. Bishara doesn't deny
making the remarks.
But what really got him in trouble
with the law was his appearance a year
later in Syria for the one-year anniver-
sary of long-time dictator Hafez
Assad's death. The host at the gather-
ing was Syrian President Bashar Assad,
and the guest list included Hezbollah
leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and
Palestinian terror chieftain Ahmed
Jibril, who sat next to Bishara.
The tenor of the assembly in
Kardeha, Hafez Assad's birthplace, was
that of an Arab war council. Bishara
paid tribute to Hezbollah's "determi-
nation, persistence and heroism," and
called on the Arab world to support
the intifada so Palestinians "can wage
resistance" with the same success.
Bishara doesn't deny saying this,
either.
For those two speeches, the Knesset

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*IN

11/16

2001

26

Azmi Bishara, an Arab member of the Knesset, voted at a Knesset session last week.

voted to lift Bishara's parliamentary
immunity, allowing Israeli Attorney
General Elyakim Rubinstein to indict
him for giving support to a terrorist
organization. It is the first time in
Israel's history that an MK will be
prosecuted for things he said.

Freedom Or Subversion?

The case spotlights the dilemma of
where to draw the line between free-
dom of speech and subversion.
A number of Arab MKs have been,
and are being, investigated for express-
ing support for terror against Israel,
yet it is fitting that Bishara be the test
case. Along with Islamic Movement
leader Sheikh Ra'ed Salah, he is the
ascendant political power among
Israel's Arab. community. Along with
Yossi Beilin, he's the most original and
effective agent for change Israel has
seen in the last decade.
Bishara authored and popularized
the idea that Israel should not be a
Jewish state, but rather a "state of all
its citizens," a demand made today by
virtually all Israeli Arabs, except those
who insist Israel should be an Islamic
state. He's the only Arab to run for
prime minister, pulling out on the eve
of the 1999 election to hurt incum-
bent Binyamin Netanyahu's chances.

And when the beneficiary of that ges-
ture, Ehud Barak, badly disappointed
Arab voters and then waged war
against the intifada, Bishara spearhead-
ed the first-ever Israeli Arab election
boycott in February, which turned out
to be a resounding show of strength.
Now, at 45, he has yet another
provocative "first" to add to his
resume.
Presenting his side of the story in a
telephone interview, Bishara at times
sounds like he's taking his cue from
Bill Clinton's "it depends on what you
mean by the word cis"' defense in the
Monica Lewinsky scandal.
"I never called for the use of vio-
lence, never called for terror, never
gave support to Hezbollah, never iden-
tified with Hezbollah," he says,
answering the charges in Rubinstein's
draft indictment.
But isn't using the word "heroic" to
describe Hezbollah's actions — which
included killing Israeli soldiers and
civilians — the same as supporting it?
"No," Bishara replies. "Many Israeli
commentators have described
Hezbollah's actions as heroic." He says
his appearance in Kardeha was not
intended as a gesture of solidarity with
Syria, Hezbollah or anybody else at the
assembly. "I didn't invite those people, I
was invited on my own," he notes.

The issue of whether he's entitled to
immunity as an MK doesn't interest
Bishara, at least not in the interview.
Even the democratic issue — freedom
of speech — is secondary. The main
thing for him is the politics of the
matter, the rightness of his position.
Hezbollah, in his view, was totally jus-
tified in its guerrilla war against Israeli
"occupation" and "colonialism," and
so are the Palestinians. •
This, he believes, is what makes
him innocent, and this is what makes
the Israeli judicial and political sys-
tem, which are trying to punish him,
guilty.
"What gives my statements legiti-
macy is the fact that colonialism and
occupation are bad, and people have
the right to resist it," he stresses.
And if the situation were turned
around — if, say, a Syrian citizen trav-
eled to Israel and praised the govern-
ment for fighting the Palestinians and
Hezbollah — would that be legiti-
mate? "No," Bishara replies. "When
one's people are fighting against occu-
pation, it is not legitimate for him to
speak in favor of it."

First For Knesset

Rubinstein is known for being cau-
tious about going after MKs who call
for violence, but the Bishara case, for
him, was cut and dried. He told the
Knesset that in the past there were
always divergent legal opinions on
whether to go after an MK for incite-
ment, but that in the Bishara case, he
heard no such dissent.
Many liberal doves in the Knesset
agree with the decision to indict
Bishara. "A democracy has to defend
itself," notes MK Anat Ma'or of the
left-wing Meretz party.
MK Tommy Lapid summed up the
feeling among many liberals: "We all
have a problem. Nobody wants to
limit freedom of speech, but on the
other hand, we all understand that
Bishara exploits this freedom unjustly.
"Over the last year, Israeli Arab MKs
have become so extreme," Lapid says.
"A democracy has to set certain lim-
its." 111

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