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Barghouti appears in court, calls for Israeli withdraw
Marwan Barghouti, former Fatah Secretary-General in the West Bank, who is serving five life sentences in Israel for terrorist activities, told Israeli reporters yesterday that “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will end once Israel withdraws to the 1967 lines.”
Barghouti was in court testifying via video-link in an American civil lawsuit filed by the family of Esther Kleinman, who was killed in a shooting attack near Ramallah in 2002. The family alleges that Barghouti was directly involved in the shooting, which took place while he was head of the Tanzim, Fatah’s militant faction.
Barghouti also spoke about the possibility he would run for a parliamentary seat in the next Palestinian elections: “The PA has yet to declare the elections. Once they do we’ll see… We have to form a national unity government and pursue peaceful resistance.”
Barghouti refused to answer questions in the trial, stating that he did not recognise the authority of the court. He was convicted in an Israeli court in 2004 on five counts of murder.
For a background analysis on Barghouti and his role in Palestinian politics click here.