Palestinian leader Barghouti defiant in 'political' trial

Palestinians and Israelis briefly turned their attention away from the theatre of war yesterday towards a legal and political circus played out before the world's media in a noisy Tel Aviv courtroom.

In the spotlight was Marwan Barghouti, the small, fiery-eyed head of Fatah in the West Bank who has become a very popular Palestinian leader since being seized by Israeli forces, locked up in prison and accused of being involved in murdering 26 Israelis.

For the second time in a month, he came out of the Israeli prison in which he has been held since being captured in April. He was brought toa brief but tumultuous court hearing, attended this time by three of his children. His appearance enraged relatives of Israelis killed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the militia which the Israeli government alleges was headed by him.

Concerned to prevent a repetition of the Fatah leader's court appearance last month, when he dominated TV headlines by protesting his innocence before the cameras, the Israeli government mobilised its spokesmen to tutor the media in its views before the hearing began. Their theme was that the trial was not about politics, but – as Daniel Taub, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official, put it – the murder of 26 people, including an eight-month-old baby and a 79-year-old woman, and the injury of hundreds more.

Palestinian officials take the opposite view. They insist it is a political trial aimed at an articulate and up-and-coming leader. Officially, Marwan Barghouti is the secretary general of Fatah on the West Bank, a senior position.

Both sides see it as a showcase on the international stage for airing grievances about their enemies.

As they did, the war flared up beyond the courtroom. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and four wounded in two separate Palestinian attacks in the Gaza Strip – one on a tank blown up by a mine, the other in a shooting and grenade attack on an army Jeep, in which a Palestinian fighter was also killed.

Only hours before the start of yesterday's hearing, the Israeli police said they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle a 1,300lb car bomb from the West Bank into northern Israel.

Early today, Israeli helicopter gunships destroyed a metal-working factory in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Nobody was hurt but the Israelis claimed the factory had been used to make ammunitions, a claim denied by the owner.

Inside the courtroom, it was not long before hostilities erupted. Some of the relatives of Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks shouted insults across the courtroom at the accused's children, denouncing him as a murderer and calling his 15-year-old daughter a sharmuta – Arabic for whore. One woman shouted at one of the Barghouti sons: "You're going to die, just like my daughter died."

There were scuffles between Israelis and Arabs outside. A leading Arab-Israeli parliamentarian, Ahmed Tibi, was attacked by an Israeli but escaped unhurt after police intervened. Several relatives of victims of attacks claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade attended court. Zion and Etti Ben-Shalom held up large framed photos of their son, Sharon, and their daughter-in-law, Yael, who were killed in a shooting ambush last year.

Mr Barghouti, who is also a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, faces trial on 37 counts including murder or abetting the murder of 26 people, including a Greek Orthodox monk, and being the leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

He had previously said he would refuse to recognise the court, arguing it had no right to try him as he is a parliamentarian who was kidnapped by Israeli forces that illegally invaded land under the control of the Palestinian Authority. He again refused to recognise the court yesterday, which was presided over by a three-judge panel. His team of Arab-Israeli lawyers, who represented him in pre-trial hearings, did not participate; he rejected the offer of a state-appointed Israeli defence lawyer. The indictment outlining the charges, which could send him to jail for life, lay untouched and unread on the table before him.

Flanked by police, and clad in a dark brown prisoner's uniform, the 43-year-old declared to the court that the state of Israel had "no right" to put him on trial. "I am a Palestinian parliamentarian. I was elected by the Palestinian people. I am a political figure," he said.

Mr Barghouti declared that he was a "freedom fighter" who believed in peace and a two-state solution. At one point, he was heckled by the father of an Israeli teenager killed in a suicide bombing in June, who shouted out: "You are a murderer. You are a terrorist". Court ushers leapt up to remove the man. The trial will resume in a month.

Israeli officials talk of it as a chance to "tell Israel's story", particularly the misery inflicted by suicide bombings. Mr Barghouti and his supporters see it as a chance to highlight 35 years of illegal occupation.