[antiwar-van] If this is not Racism What is?

[hanna]

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/518293.html

Last Update: 23/12/2004 06:31

Court erupts over expert's testimony on `Arab mentality'

By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent

The Haifa District Court was thrown into disarray Wednesday during testimony
given by an expert witness on behalf of the State Prosecution in a case
involving the Islamic Movement. At the height of the uproar, Judge Micha
Lindenstrauss ordered one of the five defendants, Dr. Suliman Agbariya, out
the courtroom. In protest, the remaining defendants and their supporters
left the courtroom, too, directing cries of "You're a Nazi" at the state's
expert.

"The Arab mentality is made of "a sense of being a victim," "pathological
anti-Semitism," and "a tendency to live in a world of illusions," said Prof.
Rafi Israeli, a lecturer in Middle Eastern studies at Hebrew University, on
the witness stand Wednesday, adding that the Arabs neglect sanitation in
their communities. "Most of the Arab villages are dirtier, physically - it's
a fact," he said.

Professor Israeli is the last of the prosecution's witnesses in the case
against five Islamic Movement members accused of security and financial
offenses.

The defense initially requested that Israeli's testimony be rejected,
claiming the professor is identified with the extreme right - but his
testimony was heard.

The professor's entire testimony, which began last week and was completed
Wednesday, was accompanied by interjections and outbursts of emotion.
Israeli was summoned to testify on an opinion he rendered at the request of
the prosecution and according to which there exists an ideological
similarity between the Islamic Movement under Sheikh Ra'ad Salah and the
Islamic Brotherhood and Hamas. Like the Islamic Brotherhood and Hamas,
Israeli believes, the Islamic Movement is a subversive organization that
seeks the destruction of Israel.

During cross-examination Wednesday, Israeli was asked to respond to
questions on a number of issues concerning his viewpoint on the Arabs in
Israel, Islam in general, and the sketch he offered of the nature of "the
Arab mentality."

The cross-examination, handled by attorneys Avigdor Feldman and Riad Anis,
focused on the opinion Israeli wrote for the prosecution and, primarily, on
quotes from a book he published in 2002 in which he describes Israel's Arabs
as a fifth column "that sucks on the udders of the country."

Wednesday in the witness box, Israeli reiterated that the Arabs were "a
burden on the state."

During the course of the court hearing, Sheikh Ra'ad Salah likened Israeli's
opinions to those of the Nazis. Similar views, Salah said, "caused the
people of Israel to fall in the Holocaust."

Addressing Israeli, Salah said, "You are the danger; you are the worm of
your people."

The Islamic Movement and its defense team expressed shock and outrage at the
choice of Israeli as a witness for the prosecution. "It's a shame and a
disgrace," said attorney Feldman, noting he would be taking the matter up
with the attorney general "to see if he stands behind this testimony."