TEL AVIV, June 6: An Israeli court on Sunday jailed Palestinian revolt leader Marwan Barghouthi for life on murder convictions but the man seen as Yasser Arafat's possible successor said his people's statehood quest would not be broken.

"The (Israeli) occupation is going to end one day. It is dying," Barghouthi, 45, said just before the Tel Aviv court handed down five consecutive life sentences for murder over the killings of five people by militants in his Fatah faction.

Barghouthi, who denied involvement in militant ambushes, received another 20 years for attempted murder and a further 20 for activity in a "terror group" - 165 years in total - in a high-profile case that Palestinians denounced as a show trial.

"This is a courageous decision by the court that had a difficult task finding justice for victims while the Barghouthi side tried to turn it into a political trial," said Daniel Taub, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's spokesman on legal affairs.

A fiery and articulate Palestinian lawmaker, Barghouthi did not recognise the jurisdiction of the court that convicted him of murder last month but acquitted him of 21 other killings, citing insufficient evidence.

Supporters said Barghouthi had no intention of appealing the verdict or asking the court for a reduced sentence. Israeli Arab parliamentarians shook Barghouthi's hand and kissed him before he entered the courtroom. Relatives of 20 slain Israelis screamed at the Israeli Arab lawmakers: "You're garbage! Peace will come when terrorism ends!"

Barghouthi, Fatah's West Bank leader, said during the trial he opposed the killing of innocents in the revolt against Israel's grip on lands taken in the 1967 Middle East war where Palestinians now seek statehood.

The court found Barghouthi guilty of murder and complicity in attacks that killed a Greek Orthodox monk in the West Bank in 2001, an Israeli at the Jewish settlement of Givat Zeev in 2002 and three people at a Tel Aviv restaurant in 2002.

Legal experts called the acquittals in other cases a blow to Israel's effort to pin wholesale blame on Palestinian leaders for suicide bombings and other attacks by militants.

"This court is just a partner in the war against the Palestinian people," Barghouthi said in a five-minute statement before sentencing that ended a tumultuous trial, punctuated by outbursts by himself and his fans and foes in the gallery.

"A continuation of the intifada (uprising) is the only way to independence. No matter how many (Israel) arrests and kills, they will not break our people's determination." Barghouthi, who speaks good Hebrew and English, was the internationally known grassroots voice of the revolt for a Palestinian state. -Reuters