Speaking in near-perfect Hebrew, Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi closed his trial in Israel on murder charges on Monday with a demand for independence for his people as the price of peace.

"We are a people like all other people. We want freedom and a state just like the Israelis," said Barghouthi, a senior figure in Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction accused of orchestrating gun ambushes and suicide bombings that killed 26 people.

"Israel must decide: either it allows for a (Palestinian) state alongside it, or it becomes a state for two peoples," he said in an hour-long closing argument in the language he learned in jail.

Barghouthi, 43, denies the charges while supporting a three-year-old Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

In keeping with his insistence Israel has no right to try him, he dismissed the prosecution's case on Monday. Instead, Barghouthi took the stand in the familiar role of tribune for a people aggrieved by 1993 accords that failed to yield a state.

"We are not historians nor government representatives," chided Sarah Sirotta, head of the three-judge panel in Tel Aviv court, halfway through Barghouthi's hour-long statement. "If it were in our hands we would issue an injunction ordering peace!"

To cheers from European Parliament observers in the gallery, Barghouthi exhorted her with a smile: "Why don't you just get up and say 'I am against the occupation'?"

Palestinians want a state in the West Bank and Gaza. But many Israelis, citing suicide bombings within their recognized borders, believe the Jewish state itself is in jeopardy.

Barghouthi, Fatah's leader in the West Bank, long argued for co-existence but made no apology for violence that erupted in September 2000 after talks on Palestinian statehood stalled.

"I am against killing innocents. But...I am proud of the resistance to Israeli occupation. To die is better than living under occupation."

A verdict in the case is scheduled after November 10.

BOUNCING BACK FROM BEHIND BARS?

Barghouthi's courtroom conduct has infuriated Israelis bereaved in scores of attacks mounted by Fatah-linked militants.

But they delight Palestinians for whom Barghouthi is second only to Arafat in popularity, raising speculation he could one day succeed the Palestinian president.

Barghouthi's clout was highlighted by his role in helping broker, from his jail cell, a unilateral cease-fire by Palestinian militants in June. The truce fell apart in August.

Barghouthi, who says he is a political figure only uninvolved in violence, tops the list of prisoners Palestinians want freed in any rapprochement with Israel.

Security sources said last week he could be freed by Israel as part of a possible swap of Palestinian and other Arab prisoners for an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers held by Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah. Israeli officials later denied Barghouthi was on any roster.

But on Monday, Barghouthi, who trimmed his beard for the first time since being arrested in April 2002, was upbeat.

"Put together a commemorative book, because this is history," he told prosecutors. "I'll be out soon enough."

Prosecutor Devorah Chen was unfazed. "Mr Barghouthi made a mistake in not defending himself against the charges," she said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Daniel Taub said whatever the trial outcome, Israel had gained since Barghouthi was tried in open court unlike most Palestinians accused of security crimes.

(Xinhua News Agency September 30, 2003)