Israeli PM's military attache stays away from UK

[P F Tinmore]

JERUSALEM – The Israeli army says the prime minister's military attache did not accompany him to Britain this week, fearing pro-Palestinian activists might try to have him arrested on war crimes charges.

Maj. Gen. Yohanan Locker was deputy chief of the Israel Air Force during Israel's war in Gaza two years ago.

Activists critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza have sought to arrest other Israeli officials under a British law that allows foreigners to be prosecuted for alleged war crimes committed anywhere in the world.

Israeli PM's military attache stays away from UK - Yahoo! News

 

[RetiredGySgt]

JERUSALEM – The Israeli army says the prime minister's military attache did not accompany him to Britain this week, fearing pro-Palestinian activists might try to have him arrested on war crimes charges.

Maj. Gen. Yohanan Locker was deputy chief of the Israel Air Force during Israel's war in Gaza two years ago.

Activists critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza have sought to arrest other Israeli officials under a British law that allows foreigners to be prosecuted for alleged war crimes committed anywhere in the world.

Israeli PM's military attache stays away from UK - Yahoo! News

Why not just arrest the head of the Government? By the way? Will Britain also seek to arrest the known terrorists and murderers in the Hamas Government? Or is that different?

 

[P F Tinmore]

JERUSALEM – The Israeli army says the prime minister's military attache did not accompany him to Britain this week, fearing pro-Palestinian activists might try to have him arrested on war crimes charges.

Maj. Gen. Yohanan Locker was deputy chief of the Israel Air Force during Israel's war in Gaza two years ago.

Activists critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza have sought to arrest other Israeli officials under a British law that allows foreigners to be prosecuted for alleged war crimes committed anywhere in the world.

Israeli PM's military attache stays away from UK - Yahoo! News

Why not just arrest the head of the Government? By the way? Will Britain also seek to arrest the known terrorists and murderers in the Hamas Government? Or is that different?

Interesting questions. Netenyahu was not in office during Cast Lead. Also, settlers are not protected persons according to the Geneva Convention. Attacks against settlers are not illegal.

 

[alexa]

JERUSALEM – The Israeli army says the prime minister's military attache did not accompany him to Britain this week, fearing pro-Palestinian activists might try to have him arrested on war crimes charges.

Maj. Gen. Yohanan Locker was deputy chief of the Israel Air Force during Israel's war in Gaza two years ago.

Activists critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza have sought to arrest other Israeli officials under a British law that allows foreigners to be prosecuted for alleged war crimes committed anywhere in the world.

Israeli PM's military attache stays away from UK - Yahoo! News

Interesting. This Government is wanting to change this law apparently in order to be able to still get information on terrorism.

The rationale behind universal jurisdiction is that certain crimes – piracy, war crimes, genocide, torture, crimes against humanity and hostage taking – are so harmful to international interests that states are entitled, and in some cases even obliged, to bring proceedings, regardless of the location of the crime and the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim. In accordance with that principle, in December 2009 a British judge granted an arrest warrant against Tzipi Livni, who had been the foreign minister during Israel's assault on Gaza a year earlier. It was withdrawn when it emerged that she had not travelled here after all, but the Labour government, backed by the Conservative leadership, expressed outrage that the warrant had been issued.


The coalition government claims that it is in favour of applying universal jurisdiction here. But it has brought forward proposals to change the law on arrest warrants requested by private individuals in international cases that will, in practice, deny access to criminal justice to victims from those countries allied to Britain who are prepared to withdraw intelligence co-operation or use other political or economic pressure to achieve immunity for suspects.

If the law is changed, suspects from a list of "protected countries" that includes Israel, America, China, Saudi Arabia and potentially others, such as Bahrain, will visit our shores with impunity, making us a safe haven for some war criminals and torturers. This outcome would be a sick parody of true universal jurisdiction.

The offending clause in the police reform and social responsibility bill, which receives its third reading in the House of Commons this week, will give the director of public prosecutions (DPP) a veto over private applications to judges for arrest warrants in international criminal cases. Complainants will have to beg the to give them the keys to the court, even though no legal need has been demonstrated for this change. Ten applications for arrest warrants in 10 years, with two being successful, hardly suggests that judges are unable to weed out bogus cases.

Parliamentarians appear unaware that behind the visible hurdle of the DPP is an invisible and insurmountable one in certain cases, namely the attorney general, who will be the instrument that will deliver the new restricted form of universal jurisdiction that the government has in mind. The DPP's evidence to the Commons public bill committee in January was unequivocal – he would consult the attorney general whenever he is approached to give consent to allow an application to proceed to court. The attorney general will make a judgment on the public interest test behind closed doors, knowing he or she will never be held accountable for the decision, and all the victim will know is that the DPP refused consent to an application to a judge for an arrest warrant.

- snip-

Indeed, it is in Israel’s interests to exaggerate the impact of arrests and prosecutions of its nationals on the Middle East peace process, and Hague has fallen for this trick, just as David Miliband did before him. If the true reason for giving Israelis and others immunity is the fear of reprisals by withholding intelligence, then surely the public should know this?

Neither the interests of justice nor the long-term reputation of this country in relation to the even-handed application of the rule of law will be enhanced by the secretive administrative process being proposed to parliament. A legal case for changing the current judicial process, through the senior district judge, has not been made out and parliament is entitled to reject the proposed change on that basis alone.

Arrest warrant plans make a mockery of universal jurisdiction | Daniel Machover | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Here is the Parliament debate on issue

Universal jurisdiction – debate in parliament | Jews for Justice for Palestinians

You will notice at the end that this is going on to committee.

 

[Epsilon Delta]

Why not just arrest the head of the Government? By the way?

Because Netanyahu wasn't the head of the Government back when the Gaza War occurred.

Will Britain also seek to arrest the known terrorists and murderers in the Hamas Government? Or is that different?

Of course that's different, silly. Israel doesn't allow anyone in Gaza to leave Gaza, hence they can't actually go anywhere to get arrested.