Grandson of maverick Israeli critic to assist Palestinians

JERUSALEM -- Shamai Leibowitz is taking up where his grandfather, a maverick Jewish scholar, left off -- joining the defense team of a Palestinian leader charged with directing terror attacks against Israelis, as a way of protesting Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Leibowitz, a lawyer, plans to be at the defense table Thursday in a Tel Aviv court when Marwan Barghouti, West Bank leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, faces charges of murder, attempted murder and terrorism. While the Israeli government casts Barghouti as a terrorist, Leibowitz compares him to the biblical Moses, evoking the wrath of other Orthodox Jews.

His grandfather, world-renowned Torah scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz, was one of the first Israelis to demand that Israel withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza Strip after the territories were captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

As the years progressed and Orthodox Jewish leaders became more and more identified with the movement to settle Jews in the territories, claiming them as part of Israel's biblical homeland, Leibowitz became a lone prophet of doom in the Orthodox Jewish camp.

Barghouti will be making his third court appearance since Israeli forces arrested him in Ramallah in April. Barghouti insists he is a politician and is not connected with violence. Israel accuses Barghouti of orchestrating terror attacks.