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Au tour des bourreaux de ne plus dormir tranquilles ! (NDLR) : Israeli minister avoids UK visit
Israel’s vice-prime minister has cancelled a planned trip to London over fears that he could be arrested for alleged war crimes.
Mardi, 6 octobre 2009 - 13h47
Tuesday 6 October 2009
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Yaalon was the military chief of staff when an Israeli air raid killed 15 people in Gaza City [EPA]
Israel’s vice-prime minister has cancelled a planned trip to London over fears that he could be arrested for alleged war crimes, his spokesman says.
Moshe Yaalon called off the trip fearing that pro-Palestinian groups in London might seek his trial for his role in the 2002 deaths of 15 people, including a Hamas leader and eight children.
Yaalon was the military chief-of-staff when an Israeli fighter jet dropped a one-tonne bomb in Gaza City, killing Salah Shehadeh, head of the armed wing of Hamas, along with his wife.
Israel’s foreign ministry advised against the planned trip after it emerged that Yaalon, who is also strategic affairs minister, had been invited to attend a fund-raising dinner hosted by the British branch of the Jewish National Fund.
Barak arrest attempt
Last Tuesday Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, dismissed a bid to have him arrested in Britain as “absurd” while attending the governing Labour party’s annual conference.
British activists had sought his arrest over Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip in December-January, where more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
The request was denied on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.
Similar attempts have been made in the past by activists in a number of other countries, notably South Africa, to have visiting Israeli officials arrested for alleged war crimes.
In December 2007, Avi Dichter, a former chief of the Shin Bet internal security agency, turned down an invitation to visit Britain after being advised he could be arrested for his role in the same assassination.
Earlier this year, a Spanish court shelved a judge’s investigation into a 2002 Israeli air raid, siding with prosecutors who said the European country lacked jurisdiction.
