One Israeli's trip to Jenin, then jail

Aside from performing military service in the occupied territories, most Israelis rarely make contact with Palestinians. Tali Fahima, an Israeli woman, did something even more unusual: She phoned up and met Zakaria Zubeidi, a Palestinian militant high on Israel's most wanted list.

Concerns about Ms. Fahima's association with Mr. Zubeidi, leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin, landed her in prison. She is the first Jewish woman ever to be placed in Israeli "administrative detention," a legal limbo normally reserved for Palestinians and right-wing extremists.

The "Fahima Affair" as it has become known, has raised passions not only because of vocal opposition to using the step against Israelis, but because it involves a rare case of an Israeli woman crossing a cultural canyon to find sympathy for a Palestinian fighter.

Yesterday, at a hearing in Tel Aviv district court for review of the detention, Fahima's lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan said that she could not adequately defend her client because she was not allowed to see the classified Shin Bet information presented to judge Uri Goren that forms the basis for the detention. Judge Goren is to rule today on the detention order's legality.

The Israeli state sees Zubeidi as an arch-terrorist, blaming him for a suicide bombing as well as shooting attacks that took the lives of ten people. To Fahima, who met with him after being impressed by an interview he gave, Zubeidi is a "freedom fighter."

"It is impossible not to admire a person of my age who does so much for his nation, who gave up everything, who cannot even remain in the same place for a half an hour," she told the Israeli newspaper Ha'ir in March after visiting with Zubeidi in Jenin.

Fahima, a former legal secretary who voted for Ariel Sharon in the last election, also declared that she would serve as a "human shield" to prevent the Army from assassinating Zubeidi, as it has tried to do three times. And, after organizing a fund-raiser in Tel Aviv, she returned to Jenin in a bid to launch projects for children of the refugee camp. On her way to the camp in August, she was arrested. She was also held and then put under house arrest in May after visiting the camp.

Administrative detention allows the defense minister to put behind bars individuals deemed to be a security threat for up to six months without furnishing proof that they have broken the law. After four weeks of Shin Bet interrogations of Fahima, Israel decided that it could not make public in a trial enough evidence to indict her for involvement in terrorism by the Al Aqsa Brigades. Instead, she was given a four month administrative detention.

"The classified material points to a grave danger from Fahima," state attorney Aner Helman said at the first hearing to review the order. A Justice Ministry statement added that intelligence information and the Shin Bet's assessment showed that Fahima "had the intention of carrying out, together with terrorist operatives from Jenin, an attack against Israeli targets."

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