The Sixth Station(14)

“Mr. ben Yusef, once more I’ll ask you: Do you need an interpreter?”

Again, ben Yusef neither acknowledged the judge nor his counselors, who were beginning to look distressed even though the tribunal had yet to get under way. Johanna Edmonds, second-chair attorney from South Africa, a slim Caucasian woman, hair pulled back in a conservative bun, wearing an understated blue suit, stood.

“On behalf of our client, we state to the court that there is no authority in this tribunal to pass judgment on our client.”

“Noted,” Bagayoko answered. “Regardless of what you or your client thinks, this tribunal will proceed as scheduled.”

Edmonds then sat back down and whispered in her client’s ear. Ben Yusef picked up the pad and pen in front of him and wrote something down, which he handed to her.

She stood again.

Edmonds asked, “May I approach the bench, Your Honor?”

“Yes, you may, counselor.”

“A plea? This early?” Dona suggested.

Edmonds walked across the platform and handed the judge a piece of paper, which she looked at briefly, clearly confused. “What is this?” Bagayoko asked, holding the paper in her hand like she’d been handed a used tissue.

“It’s a note given to me by my client, Your Honor,” Edmonds answered.

On the note, which was later reprinted and released to the media, was written: .

“I can see where this is headed.…” Judge Bagayoko said sotto voce, turning the note upside down and around, clearly annoyed that the terrorist had already gotten one up on her. She put on reading glasses and then said, exasperated, “What language is this exactly?”

Edmonds answered, “I believe it is Aramaic, Judge.”

“Oh, I see. Is there a United Nations translator of Aramaic present in the courtroom?” When no one stood, she then asked, “Is there any spectator present that can interpret Aramaic?” A man in a white galabia (robe) and red-and-white-checked keffiyeh draped around his head stood up while everyone in the entire room craned their necks, shocked.

Bagayoko stared at him a second before saying, “What is your name, sir?”

“Mahmoud Haniyah, Your Honor.” The senior representative of Hamas! “I speak all forms of Aramaic.”

“Then please step forward, Mr. Haniyah.” The courtroom was abuzz. A terrorist using a terrorist as an interpreter? Fantastic!

A court officer took the paper from the chief judge and handed it to the representative of Hamas, who looked at it and then said loud enough for most of us to hear, “Your Honor, it is Aramaic; I believe it is Herodian, as used in the time of Jesus Christ. It says: . This means, ‘I answer only to my father,’ or it can be interpreted as ‘He answered to my father,’ or both.”

“Both?” Bagayoko asked, removing her glasses.

“Your Honor, it is much the same way that the English word read can be both present or past depending on the context.”

The courtroom was absolutely silent. Everyone was thinking the same racist thing: a terrorist who speaks ancient Aramaic and modern English? How many of us can do that?

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. You may return to your seat,” which the Palestinian did with a pleased expression on his face.

Then the chief judge addressed ben Yusef directly. “Your father, according to FBI documents, was named—” At this she keyed something into the built-in tablet in her bench and continued. “Yes, one Yusef Pantera, who was listed as a soldier of fortune. Killed in a plane crash in 1982.”

With controlled anger in her tone, she added, “Mister ben Yusef. It is your right not to answer, but that is the last time you will interrupt these proceedings with your manipulations.”

She asked him to stand, and when he refused, his lawyers on either side of him took hold of his elbows and gently persuaded him up, and then the chief judge began to read the Crimes against Humanity charges for which he stood accused.

They included twenty counts of conspiracy to commit murder, fifty counts of terrorism, one thousand counts of murder in violation of the law of war, attacking civilians and civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destruction of property in violation of the law of war, and providing material support for terrorism. The death count she estimated at “tens of thousands.”

“How do you plead, Mr. ben Yusef?” Silence.

Randall Mohammed stood. “Once more, Your Honor, on behalf of our client, we state to the court that there is no authority in this tribunal to pass judgment on our client.”

“Then let us proceed with or without your client’s consent,” and she called on the prosecution to give their opening statement.