Israel has charged Mr Marwan Barghouti, the de facto leader of the intifada and the most popular Palestinian leader after Mr Yasser Arafat, with premeditated murder, incitement to murder and a host of other "terrorist activities" in which "scores of Israeli citizens were killed".
Indicting a Palestinian detainee for trial in a civil court for the first time in the more than 22 months of the intifada conflict, Israel aims to bring evidence against Mr Barghouti which will tar Mr Arafat's entire Palestinian regime with terrorism. Indeed, the charge sheet specifies that Mr Arafat provided funding for attacks on Israeli targets orchestrated by Mr Barghouti.
However, the strategy is a high-risk one for Israel, since Mr Barghouti intends to use the proceedings to justify violent resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. His lawyer said he had prepared his own "list of charges against Israel and the Israeli occupation".
Led into the Tel Aviv District Court yesterday to face allegations linking him to 37 attacks for which he could face a lifetime in jail, Mr Barghouti, tousled and wearing Israeli prison fatigues, raised his handcuffed wrists in victory salutes and declared "the intifada will be victorious" and "only peace will bring security to both sides".
Silenced repeatedly by the judge for making passionate declarations in Arabic, English and the Hebrew he has doubtless polished during Israeli incarcerations, Mr Barghouti (43) characterised himself as "a peace man" and said he had striven "to do everything for peace between the two peoples".
However, Israeli officials allege that Mr Barghouti, having initially defended attacks on Israeli targets by more extreme Palestinian groups, gradually began funding and finally organising them, effectively becoming the leader of the al-Aqsa Brigades, affiliated with Mr Arafat's Fatah faction.
State Prosecutor Ms Deborah Chen said several jailed commanders of the Brigades would testify against Mr Barghouti. She would also rely on captured documents and the defendant's comments in questioning since his capture in April.
Mr Barghouti's lawyer said he did not intend to call witnesses and that his client did not recognise the court's jurisdiction. His wife, Fadwa, told reporters it was the Israeli government which should be on trial "for crimes against the Palestinian people". The next hearing was set for September 5th.
The hearing, widely covered in the Palestinian media and across the Arab world, seems certain to boost Mr Barghouti's image as the West Bank's Nelson Mandela and his standing as Mr Arafat's heir apparent.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank yesterday, Israeli troops killed a Hamas commander, Nasser Jarar, whom it alleged had orchestrated several suicide bombings and was planning an act of "mega-terrorism". Missing both legs and an arm after a bomb he was preparing exploded last year, Jarar was blown up inside his home north-east of Nablus, along with a second man.