Israeli state prosecutors yesterday filed charges of incitement to violence against a serving member of the Knesset. Arab representative Mr Azmi Bishara had praised Hizbullah guerrillas for forcing an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and earlier this year allegedly called for a "widening" of Arab resistance to Israel. He was also charged with illegally organising visits by Israeli citizens to Syria, an enemy state.
The indictment of Mr Bishara, who ran a marginal campaign for the premiership in Israel's 1999 general elections, came less than a week after his fellow Knesset members voted overwhelmingly to lift his parliamentary immunity from prosecution - an action never before taken against a member of the Knesset who faced prosecution for things he had said, rather than done.
Left-wing deputies and Mr Bishara's Arab Knesset colleagues voted against the move, saying it showed discrimination against Arabs. At a press conference in the West Bank Palestinian city of Ramallah Mr Bishara charged that Israeli prosecutors were "trying to terrify Israeli Arabs by attacking one of their leaders".
Mr Bishara insists he is a pacifist, and does not encourage violence. However, prosecutors note that his alleged call for widened resistance was delivered last summer in Syria, at a gathering marking the first anniversary of the death of President Hafez Assad, to an audience that included the leaders of Hizbullah and Palestinian groups, such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, openly committed to Israel's destruction.
Several more of the 10 politicians from Arab Knesset parties are also under investigation, including one, Mr Talab a-Sana, who allegedly described a Palestinian gunman's shooting spree in Tel Aviv as legitimate, because most of the injured were soldiers.
Israeli troops shot dead a Hamas activist, and arrested some 45 people, during a pre-dawn raid on the West Bank village of Tell, near Nablus. Israeli officials said that Mohammed Hassan Reihan, who was killed in an exchange of fire, had killed two Israeli settlers three years ago. Hamas vowed to avenge his death.
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, returning from the UN General Assembly, said the raid would "not help international efforts" to revive peace talks. Yesterday he urged Muslim leaders to support the Intifada uprising.