A former university student accused of expressing support for Hamas a day after its militants entered Israel attended a memorial for hostages and lay flowers, her Jewish friend has told the court.
Hanin Barghouthi, 24, is accused of expressing an “opinion or belief” in support of the proscribed organisation in a speech made at a rally at the Clock Tower, Brighton, on Sunday 8 October 2023.
Jurors at Kingston Crown Court have previously been shown footage of the speech in which Barghouthi can be heard telling the crowd that “yesterday was a victory” and was “beautiful and inspiring to see”.
At the same court today (Thursday 5 March), jurors heard evidence from Taya Amit, a friend of Barghouthi’s who is Jewish.
Ms Amit said that she “bumped into” Barghouthi around a week after the video of the speech “circulated”.
The witness, who was born in Israel, said that she was aware that her friend had experienced a “difficult week” and told jurors that they had gone for a coffee.
Ms Amit, who was born in Israel, said that the first thing Barghouthi had asked her was “are you ok?” and “are people you know safe and ok?”
The witness said: “We then continued to speak. I said I was ok and the feeling that I had during the conversation and after was that Hanin was deeply, deeply caring for how I was doing (and) how other people I know were doing.”
Ms Amit recalled a conversation which took place between herself and Barghouthi regarding a local memorial for hostages.
The witness said Barghouthi “had been there herself to read all the stories of the hostages and had brought flowers to lay them down there”.
She told the court that she can “trust (Barghouthi) with anything” and always leaves conversations with the defendant feeling like “we understand each other better”.
The court also heard evidence from Susie Scott, a professor of sociology at Sussex University.
Professor Scott described Barghouthi as a “mature, conscientious, diligent, thoughtful, polite, respectful, considerate, kind, caring and generous” individual.
She added: “In my experience, Hanin shows honesty, reliability, integrity of character. She is a kind and delightful character whom it is a pleasure to know.”
Barghouthi previously told the court that she “not known” the full details of what had occurred on Saturday 7 October when she made the speech.
She described seeing a video on the morning of Saturday 7 October which appeared to show a “breakout” during which civilians used a digger to drive into a wall in Gaza.
The defendant said that she did not know about what had occurred at the Nova music festival and had not been aware about any hostages and kidnappings.
She previously told jurors: “I do not support Hamas.”
Barghouthi, from Brighton, has pleaded not guilty to a single count of expressing support for a proscribed organisation, namely Hamas.
The trial continues.
Sounds like “I’m not racist, I have a black mate”. Hate preaching needs to be punished.
A professor describes her as “mature, conscientious, diligent, thoughtful and respectful.” Perhaps she was having an off day as her actions seem contrary to this description. Perhaps use the term “naive” as it seems to have exonerated those responsible for the I360 dereliction of duty.
But this is BEFORE PA became a proscribed organisation? Not that any approval of violence is ok.
Yes it was before that but it’s totally irrelevant since she’s charged with supporting Hamas who’ve been a proscribed terrorist organisation since November 2021
So it’s worth remembering Hamas attacked occupied land that legally under international law is Palestinian not Israeli .
And under Geneva Convention law it is permissible to resist military occupation but of course never breaking the humanitarian rules of that Convention which both sides have done .
Their lands were invaded and occupied in 1967 and all the villagers were butchered by Israelis , bombed from the air and then bayoneted on the ground . Horribly
Women , men children .. even their animals
They turned these Arab villages into Kibbutzes and erased the Arab names & memories
I’m afraid they were always going to try & take back their homeland one day .
I’m not saying they should have …maybe they should have welcomed their eviction but it’s hardly surprising they did try to go back one day .
80 % of Hamas were orphans because their families were massacred by Israelis . Remember that .
Maybe that’s why they joined resistance to the occupation.?
I just wish the Jews hadn’t initially decided to annex all their lands , kill them , steal their homes and drive the survivors into the misery of the Gaza ghetto
They should really have remained inside their legal borders set by the UN and not become greedy .
Then Oct 7 may never have happened
But they have always wanted a Greater Israel from the river to the sea haven’t they ? It’s always been the plan and now they’re succeeding
We just need to condemn ALL massacres by all sides that break the Geneva Comventioo , not just one side
unfortunately our government has made it impossible to be even handed by only outlawing the crimes of one side and not the other ( crimes which started decades before Hamas even existed )