Israeli military prosecutors charged a Palestinian on Thursday with undergoing training at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan, but said the defendant later declined an offer to join Osama bin Laden's global network. While al Qaeda has often attacked Israelis abroad and champions the Palestinian cause, security experts believe its presence in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is negligible due to doctrinal differences with dominant local Islamist groups.The indictment filed at Judea Military Court alleged that Mahmoud Waridat, a 26-year-old West Bank man arrested in July, received training in small-arms and bombmaking at "al-Farouq", an al Qaeda camp outside Kandahar, in the summer of 2001. "Upon conclusion of the training, those who had participated were given the chance to join the ranks of al Qaeda, but the defendant decided not to do so," said the indictment, which did not cite specific evidence.
Recent Islamist bombings in Britain and the Egyptian Sinai have stirred speculation the Jewish state, which bin Laden has long vilified, could be high on the group's hit list. But Danny Arditi, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's top counter-terrorism advisor, said in July Israel had no information indicating that such an attack was imminent.