Israeli General Fears Arrest In Britain
Ha’aretz reports:
General (res.) Doron Almog, former head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Southern Command, escaped arrest Sunday by the London police’s anti-terrorist and war crimes unit, when he remained on an aircraft that had landed in Heathrow airport and returned with it to Israel several hours later.
Almog had arrived in London on an El-Al flight. Israel Ambassador Zvi Hefetz learned of a plan to arrest him for allegedly perpetrating war crimes during the intifada, and quickly informed Yaki Dayan, head of the political department in Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom’s bureau.
[…]The warrant was issued based on one incident – demolition of a home in Rafah – but the attorneys also seek to investigate allegations concerning Almog’s involvement in three other cases: the killing of a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy (Nouha al-Maqadam, March 3, 2003); the killing of three young men in northern Gaza on December 30, 2001; and the bombing of the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza on July 22, 2002, which killed Hamas’ military head Salah Shehadeh and 14 other Palestinians.
Should I feel bad for this guy?
yes.
http://www.israel21c.org/bin/e…
I wonder who tipped him off. The British government could not have wanted to have this kind of political hot potato in Britain, especially as British soldiers have come under a microscope for their actions in Iraq.
Sort of bizarre that Sharon, who once faced official Israeli government censure for his war conduct, should be feted at the UN at the same time one of the IDF’s officers was nearly arrested for carrying out his policies.
Asaf, do you know of evidence supporting the claims that he was responsible? If not, then do you typically assume guilt without proof? If someone has info on the claims, great, let’s see some justice. If not, hellayeah I’d feel sorry for him.
according to AI:
The arrest warrant against General Almog was issued by the Chief London Magistrate on 10 September under the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, on the basis of suspicion of the suspect’s involvement in the destruction by the Israeli army of 59 Palestinian homes in a refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on 10 January 2002.
General Almog headed the Israeli army’s Southern Command, an area that includes the Gaza Strip, between December 2000 and July 2003.
The “extensive destruction…of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly” is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 147) and, as such, a war crime.
The UK is “under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts” (Article 146). If it does not do so, it must hand such persons over for trial to another state party to the convention that is able and willing to do so. The Fourth Geneva Convention expressly forbids the UK from entering into any agreement with another state absolving itself of this obligation (Article 148).
During the past five years, since the outbreak of the intifada (Palestinian uprising) in September 2000, the Israeli army has destroyed some 4,000 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories, about half of them in the Gaza Strip, as well as vast areas of cultivated land, commercial properties and public buildings, water and electricity networks, and other public infrastructure. In the vast majority of cases the destruction was not justified by military necessity and was carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
The Israeli authorities have systematically failed to comply with Israel‚s obligations under international law to investigate these and other human rights abuses and to bring to justice those responsible.
The UK’s obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention have been given effect in domestic law via the Geneva Conventions Act 1957, which applies to: “Any person, whatever his nationality, who, whether in or outside the United Kingdom, commits, or aids, abets or procures the commission by any other person of, a grave breach of any of the scheduled conventions or the first protocol” [Article 1.-(1)].
Each state party to the Fourth Geneva Convention is obliged under Article 1 to “respect and ensure respect for” the Convention and should call upon Israel to open an immediate, thorough, prompt, independent and impartial investigation of the alleged grave breaches and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, to prosecute. If Israel does not do so, each state party has the power to issue an arrest warrant under Article 146 and, if the suspect enters their territory, has the obligation to execute that arrest warrant.
It seems to me that the Israeli General in question is way out of the Uk’s jurisdiction to be arrested and furthurmore don’t you think it would be more prudent to search for the terrorists that bombed the subways and the Bus system the Brits have no right to arrest this Israeli General for ordering the demolitions of the homes of terrorists whether if you agree with Israels policy on this or not Great Britain has no right to interfer in Israels internal affairs if Britain continues this non-sense I think Israel should start boycotting Great Britain
uberkvetcher,
Check out Ha’aretz’ editorial on this subject: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/s…
Do I hear an echo?
Amnesty International and Ha’aretz are cited to support the anti-Israel machinations of hard-left Israeli groups.
As if EVERYONE agrees that the house demolitions are illegal – in fact, they are not, and the British and other have used similar tactics to combat terrorists and insurgents.
As if EVERYONE agrees that service in the Israeli army can/should be blithely equated with “colonial occupation”.
Helooooo! You in the leftie-liberal bubble of self-reinforcing prejudices! CAN YOU HEAR ME?
Heloooooo!
um, as a volunteer with the israeli committee against house demolitions, i can assert with full knowledge that israel’s demolition policies — while they are legal according to israeli zoning and building law — are entirely illegal according to international law. you can read all about it here.
The Israeli elites that accepted the Palestinian narrative of colonial occupation have undercut Israel’s legitimacy. They thought that the rest of the world would make the nitpicky distinction between 48 and 67 – but it didn’t.
Instead the very participation of Israeli voices denouncing our “apartheid regime” and calling for Palestinian “liberation” only confirmed in most Westerners’ eyes the Pali claim that ALL of Israel is a colonialist land-grab.
We have reached the point where our presence in Tel-Aviv is basically due to squatter’s rights. The fundamental legitimacy of Israel has been undermined.
Every Israeli soldier or politician is subject to similar attack/delegitimization . Because the widespread assumption – fanned by Israeli peaceniks – is now that (all of) Israel is a fundamentally illegitimate apartheid state.
The Amos Ozes and Yossi Beilins who sucked up to the European elites have, by their own pronouncements, made themselves and their country indefensibly illegitimate in Europe’s eyes.
…. something about chickens coming home to roost….
on the one hand i can see your point, on the other hand, i think that’s bullshit. the west bank, the gaza strip, and east jerusalem constitute the occupied palestinian territories in everyone’s eyes but the palestinians themselves and the extremists who back them. i don’t know a single rational person who is asking for israel to give up its existence; unless they’re anarchists — and if they’re truly anarchists, they’re asking for palestine to give up its existence as well.
mobi:
the west bank, the gaza strip, and east jerusalem constitute the occupied palestinian territories in everyone’s eyes but the palestinians themselves and the extremists who back them.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Well, I can agree with that – if by “the extemists who back them” you include the European and American intellectual left, and their mainstream media…
You are repeating what WE involved Jews know. This story is peripheral to rest of the world, arrived at through different mental and psychological levers.
And the Palis have largely succeeded in blurring this distinction – American college kids are taken to “massacred” villages within the 48 borders. Et cetera.
The Israelis are not speaking nearly as clearly as one must in the geopolitical realm – not about Jerusalem, not about the 48 lands. What message is sent by KKL’s recent decision to erect monuments to the lost Palestinian villages of 1948?
What message is sent by the destruction of the Temple Mount – not a single Greek still worships Jupiter or Athena, but can one imagine such wholesale desctruction of the Acropolis – where priceless antiquities and national symbolism meet?
The Israeli left has hacked away at Jewish national identity – on religious, social, and political fronts. How gleefully the Yossi Beilins ran into the arms of Israel’s intellectual and political enemies, to denounce their brethren. To compare Israel to South Africa.
Well now the Israeli left has got what it wanted. Israel – and Israelis – are pariahs. NO Israeli self-defense is legitimate – because Israel’s very presence has been tainted by your “humanitarian” work.
Now they’re all plaintively whining “But we’re GOOD Israelis, not like those primitive fanatic OstJuden.”
Oooh oooh oooh – don’t blow your bomb up HERE, Mr. Pali -this bar is full of GOOD Jews. Liberal Jews.
Ooooh ooooh oooh – don’t deny my student VISA – I’m one of those right-thinking Israelis. We only ever meant for you to hate just *some* Israelis, just those smelly ones who insist on being Jewish and all that…
Don’t believe everything you read. Next thing you know, they’ll start detaining regular Israelis because they serve as reservists in a citizen army. Where do you draw the line? I’ll tell you. Throw this bullshit out IMMEDIATELY.