Kassem Before the Criminal Court

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Abdul-Sattar Kassem faces two criminal cases before the court in Nablus on Thursday, 18 March 2010.

The first case was filed against me by an intelligence officer, Mahdi Subhi al-Marqa, a resident of Ein Camp, on the claim that I said it was he who burned my car. Naturally, he presented no evidence, and no witness appeared.

As for the attack on my property, various security departments know perfectly well that I know who burned my car in 2005, who fired on it (some 60 bullets) in 2007, and who burned it again in 2009.

The second case was filed against me by a Preventive Security officer, Naaman Amer of Kafr Qalil, on the claim that I said on Al-Aqsa Television that whoever shot Sheikh Hamed al-Beitawi was an agent of Israel.

Over the first case, the Nablus public prosecutor held me for one night in the Nablus lockup, without a shred of evidence; over the second, he held me for two nights in the criminal prison, likewise without evidence — even though I have been unable to leave the country for many years, am among the most senior professors at Palestine’s universities, am known internationally and across the Arab world, am 61 years old, and have been ranked by one of the world’s publishing houses among the hundred best writers in the world. The Nablus public prosecutor felt no embarrassment, no hesitation, in locking me up as a common criminal.

What I said in the television interview, word for word, was the following:

The presenter asked: How can these attacks in the occupied West Bank, which culminated in the assassination attempt against MP Hamed al-Beitawi, be understood in light of the situation you’re describing?

My answer: This is an attempt to raise tensions, and perhaps you’ve read what Avi Dichter wrote or said in recent days. We know him well, of course, and he’s brought nothing new to the table. He said that there are people among the Palestinian leadership who cooperate with us [Israel], with the aim of keeping division and discord alive on the Palestinian scene, keeping internal fighting alive. And of course, this infighting is not unconnected to the pattern of behavior of Palestinian leaderships who are constantly carrying out difficult acts, assaults, violations of honor, and violations of property, in order to provoke the other side’s reaction. And every time that reaction is provoked, tension on the Palestinian scene rises further, the rift widens further, and we end up busying ourselves fighting one another. What happened to our brother Sheikh Hamed al-Beitawi does not fall outside this pattern. I heard the statement claiming this was an individual act. No — there’s no such thing as an individual act; even if it were carried out by one individual, it would still have been preceded by major, foolish incitement driving these acts. And of course, before that, you know they burned my car too. Why do these attacks keep happening, when everyone keeps saying, “by God, we’ve restored security to Nablus,” and so on? No, they haven’t done that — they’ve simply called for calm, while keeping those who attack people (here a word is unclear due to the presenter clearing his throat) tucked away in some corner, ready to be let loose whenever they’re needed or whenever the situation calls for it. And of course, what situation would that be? Certainly not the Palestinian situation — rather, perhaps there are interests involved, certainly interests belonging to Israel and the United States. And so these acts are nothing but a continuation of the chain of corruption we have lived through for years. End of answer — and I have the recording, both audio and video.

Where, in any of this, is the crime?

More important than all of this is the fact that I did not even learn of this shooting of al-Beitawi, which took place in April 2009, until I was in the criminal prison. It was my fellow inmates who told me about it. When I gave that television interview, I believed the presenter was asking me about the earlier shooting of al-Beitawi in the village of Rujeib, in October 2008.

I note here as well that I went to the police on 20 April to file a complaint against people who had cursed me over the phone, after identifying themselves — and I was the one detained, while those who had threatened me were never even questioned. The policeman I dealt with was Wadah al-Shaer.

More to the point, at the fifth session the prosecution was unable to produce witnesses or evidence, and so submitted my own statements to the judge, telling him that this evidence was “two pages long,” repeating the phrase more than once. I know perfectly well that a prosecutor must be well versed in the law and the philosophy of law, and that this is simply not possible without a solid command of the Arabic language.

For me, the matter is clear: they wanted to arrest me as a criminal rather than as a political detainee, in order to defame me. Others have tried this approach in various countries before, and it has backfired on them badly.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “عبد الستار قاسم أمام المحكمة الجنائية” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.