Mada's Research Papers

Summary:
This study is part of Mada’s series of research papers about the Palestinians in Israel. It analyses the Azmi Bishara trial, the head of the National Democratic Assembly (NDA), and the surrounding issues relevant to Palestinians in Israel.

Abstract:
Two specific charges were made against Azmi Bishara in the legal action taken by Israeli Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein. The first was for two speeches that Bishara made: one in Kardaha, Syria (on the one year anniversary of the death of the former Syrian president Hafez Assad, calling on all Arab countries to take a unified stance in supporting the struggle of the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation) and one in the Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm (to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the Six-Day War). The second charge was against Bishara’s involvement in organizing excursions for Palestinians in Israel to visit their families in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria.

The authors, Nimer Sultany and Areej Sabbagh-Khoury from the Arab Center for Applied Social Research (MADA), portray this trial as a political and social crossroads in relations between the state of Israel and the indigenous minority which lives in Israel. In the study, the authors analyze the main aspects of the trial including: the series of events that led to the trial, the attitudes of the state authorities and institutions during the trial, the Israeli Jewish public opinion toward Bishara and his party, the significance of the trial location, the effect of the identity of the judges on the trial and The Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance and its effect on the Israeli political discourse.

The authors argue that the Azmi Bishara trial is a classical political trial, in many ways resembling past political trials. Yet the trial is different from other political trials held in Israel in a number of ways. First, previous political trials have been of individuals who were accused or suspected of corruption or criminal activities (an example being the trial of the former Minister of the Interior and head of SHAS movement, Arie Derie) or political trials related to the Holocaust (the cases of Israel Kastner and Adolf Eichmann). It is the first time that a Member of the Knesset (MK) has been put on trial for expressing his/her political views. Second, Bishara is the first MK in the history of the Knesset to have his immunity lifted by the Knesset as a result of expressing his/her political views. Third, in this case a public lawyer, Adalah –The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which is an organization that defends the rights of the Palestinians in Israel and which identified completely with Bishara’s views on these two trials, has defended an MK in the Israeli courts rather than a private lawyer. Fourth, trials in a democratic system are generally supposed to judge acts deemed to threaten democratic principles. However, Azmi Bishara establishes his political views and platform on democratic values.

There have already been comparisons made between the Bishara trial and the Dreyfus trial. Supporters of Azmi Bishara have demonstrated holding posters with pictures of Bishara on and the term that Emile Zola coined in the Dreyfus trial, ‘I accuse’. In past political trials in Israel Deri and Kastner have both used the same term ‘I accuse’ comparing themselves to Dreyfus. However, the authors argue that both Deri and Kastner’s trials were concerned with issues between two Jewish streams of society. The trial of Bishara however, is between the Jewish state and a Palestinian member of the Knesset. Furthermore, it is significant because the trial has embodied the opposition in the Israeli establishment to any person that publicly exposes the contradiction in Israel’s definition as a ‘Jewish democracy’.

The authors conclude that using legal action to suppress the Arab minority’s demands for equality, among other measures taken by the Israeli establishment, leads to a zero-sum situation. Any action taken by the government to suppress the political views of the Palestinian minority, to silence the voice of opposition and to preserve the marginal status of these citizens can only lead to alienating the minority and will be harmful to the future of the two nations.

The book is published in Arabic and Hebrew.