Ofer Military Court, Wednesday, 5.7.06Tova s., Roni H., (reporting)When we arrived at Ofer at about 1:30 pm, the gates of the camp were wide open, no people waited at the entrance to the court and only one soldier guarded the doorway. What was going on? Where were all the family members waiting to enter the courtroom and to exchange one glance and a couple of words with their sons or husbands? TV cameras were dispersed all over the courtyard. We were told that there were no lawsuits today, except for one big “show”, the extension of the remand of five Hamas lawmakers who were arrested last week as part of the mass arrests of Hamas officials. The court room is packed with journalists, lawyers, family members of the arrested, officers, soldiers and just curious people.On the bench is one Minister of Islamic Affairs Nayef Al Rajoub and four Palestinian parliament members, Anwar Zboun, Muhamad Altal, Qalil Ravai, and Basem Zaarur . They were arrested on the grounds of their membership in a “terrorist organization”. The five have an austere appearance and it turned out that they were still wearing the same clothes in which they were arrested. Unfortunately we were late and missed the words of the chief investigator, who seems to need to support his arguments with a big black pistol that was stuck in his belt. There were four defense lawyers in court and Jawad Boulus, who defended some of the detained, declared, that his clients do not accept the authority of this court and view their remand as an abduction. They are elected leaders of the Palestinian people and Israel’s security establishment has no right to arrest them. They are parliament members who were chosen in democratic elections, which were supported by the world and by Israel itself. The case is not a legal one but a political one. It is an attempt to “decapitate” the organization’s leadership.According to attorney Boulus, the detained Hamas members were being held under difficult conditions. They have no link to the outside world, and they are being held in an isolated ward that is unfit for human beings. They are not being given newspapers or allowed to listen to the radio – except for one Israeli station. The quality and quantity of food they are getting is most awful. They are requesting their rights as captive prisoners.The judge Ronen Atzmon, rejected Boulus’ claims regarding the court’s lack of authority and argued that the court has the authority to judge a resident of the area who committed a crime in the area. He extended by five days the remand of the five senior Hamas members. It seems that in the next days we’ll have plenty of opportunities to observe military court sessions, that are not more than sad but extremely scary farces, staged by a government which has completely gone insane