British lawyers looking for ways to hold Israel accountable for its deadly advance into Gaza last year have expanded their legal campaign by seeking the arrest of Israeli military officers entering Britain.
The attorneys plan to go to British courts to obtain arrest warrants against individuals linked to suspected war crimes so they would be taken into custody if they entered Britain, Daniel Machover, a lawyer coordinating the legal team, said on Tuesday.
“We’ve been collecting evidence for some time,” said Machover of the Hickman & Rose firm. “If one of the suspects is coming to the country, we are ready to go to the police and the courts with evidence.”
There was no immediate response to the plan from Britain’s Ministry of Justice. Israel brushed off the move as part of a harassment campaign by anti-Israeli groups.
“Not one of these suits have ever materialized into a trial, due to an obvious lack of evidence and proof, and this will probably be how this one will end up as well,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.
Machover said the effort started before the Gaza offensive began in late December and also involves lawyers in other countries who are working to bring cases based on the concept of universal jurisdiction, which allows countries to arrest and try people for crimes unrelated to their own territory or nationals.
That means that a suspected war criminal thought to have committed serious crimes in another country could be put on trial in Britain even though the crime was not committed in Britain and didn’t involve British nationals.
Universal jurisdiction is accepted by some European countries, including Britain, but rejected by others. Its use has posed a problem for Israeli leaders, especially since a recent UN inquiry known as the Goldstone report accused Israel of using excessive force and endangering civilians in Gaza.
That has galvanized pro-Palestinian groups angry over Israel’s actions in Gaza, where almost 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the Dec. 27 to Jan. 18 conflict.
Pro-Palestinian lawyers tried to use universal jurisdiction doctrine to force the arrest of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on war crimes charges during a visit to Britain last month, but his status as a Cabinet minister gave him diplomatic immunity.
It is not yet clear how British courts would view requests for the arrests of serving Israeli military officers.
Machover would not specify which individuals he and other lawyers were pursuing in the courts but said he is working with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza.
“You wouldn’t know about it until the person was arrested because we don’t want the person to flee,” he said.
Machover said lawyers were also pursuing universal jurisdiction arrest warrants against suspected war criminals from other countries not connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He refused to say which countries were being targeted, again saying he did not want to tip off potential suspects.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said he welcomed the effort to prosecute Israeli officers.
He said the Goldstone report documented a number of cases in which Israel failed to comply with international law, justifying the use of universal jurisdiction to bring wrongdoers to justice.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
CONSOLIDATION: The Indonesian president has used the moment to replace figures from former president Jokowi’s tenure with loyal allies In removing Indonesia’s finance minister and U-turning on protester demands, the leader of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy is scrambling to restore public trust while seizing a chance to install loyalists after deadly riots last month, experts say. Demonstrations that were sparked by low wages, unemployment and anger over lawmakers’ lavish perks grew after footage spread of a paramilitary police vehicle running over a delivery motorcycle driver. The ensuing riots, which rights groups say left at least 10 dead and hundreds detained, were the biggest of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s term, and the ex-general is now calling on the public to restore their
RSS