Marwan Barghouthi, head of the Fateh resistance movement in the West Bank, on Monday said that a warrant issued by an Israeli court was meant to facilitate yet another assassination attempt.
"[Israeli Prime Minister] Sharon and his government are so blatantly devising a plan to assassinate me, and the issuing of this warrant is part of it," Barghouthi told Albawaba.com, adding that Sharon and "his gang of murderers" were the ones who should be arrested and prosecuted.
An Israeli court issued an arrest warrant for Barghouthi on Monday, allegedly for organizing paramilitary groups.
Citing a legal official, AFP reported that the court of Jerusalem had issued the warrant, which charges Barghouthi with "participating in terrorist activities" and "complicity in murder," at the request of the justice ministry.
Israel called on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority to hand over Barghouthi, who lives in Ramallah and is seen by many as the voice of the year-old Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
The PA has never yet extradited Palestinian leaders or militants accused of anti-Israeli activities.
Israel has adopted a policy of "liquidating" Palestinian resistance leaders, and has so far racked up a toll of between 40 and 50 victims.
The Jewish state accuses Barghouthi, who narrowly escaped an Israeli missile strike on his convoy in August, of being behind a series of attacks on its citizens in his alleged capacity as head of Fateh's armed groups, the Tanzim.
The Fateh leader said on September 17 that the intifada would intensify, predicting that it would last "another two to five years," the time it would take, according to him, to oust all Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers from the Occupied Territories.
Since Arafat declared a ceasefire "on all fronts" nearly a week ago, the Al Aqsa Brigades, an offshoot of Fateh, has claimed responsibility for the killing of a female Jewish settler in the West Bank - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
