Moshe Yaalon: cancelled a visit to Britain fearing actions brought by far-left Pro Palestinian groups

Yet more Absurd Britannia today:

Israeli minister and former military chief Moshe Yaalon cancelled a UK visit because of fears of arrest for alleged war crimes, his office says.

Pro-Palestinian groups in Britain want him to face trial over the 2002 killing of a Gaza militant, in which 14 others died, at least eight of them children.

Mr Yaalon took legal advice and wanted “to avoid playing into the hands of anti-Israel propaganda”, an aide said.

A similar attempt last week failed to get Israel’s defence minister arrested.

Mr Yaalon, who is vice prime minister and strategic affairs minister, had been invited to attend a charity dinner held by the Jewish National Fund’s UK branch.

But his spokesman, Alon Ofek-Arnon, confirmed that the foreign ministry’s legal team had advised against it.

Israeli media reported that the advisers believed Mr Yaalon would not be accorded diplomatic immunity – in contrast to Defence Minister Ehud Barak who visited the Labour Party Conference in Brighton without interference.

“This is a campaign whose goal is to de-legitimise the state,” Mr Yaalon said in remarks quoted by Haaretz newspaper.

Allegations against Mr Yaalon date back to July 2002, when an Israel Air force jet dropped a one-tonne bomb in a densely populated area of Gaza to assassinate senior Hamas figure Salah Shehada.

The attack was part of Israel’s policy of “targeted killings” of Palestinian militants it blamed for plotting attacks against it.

At the time, the army expressed regret about the deaths of the 14 civilians in addition to Mr Shehada and said they had come about as the result of faulty intelligence.

Britain has adopted the legal principle of “universal jurisdiction”, under which domestic courts in countries around the world can try war crimes suspects, even if the crime took place outside the country and the suspect is not a citizen.

Palestinian campaigners sought Mr Barak’s arrest last week, in connection with Israel’s controversial military operation in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, but judges declined to hear the case.

A UN report by international prosecutor Richard Goldstone accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes. Israel rejected its findings.

Once again, far-left anti-Semites are making trouble for Israelis. The Left has a long and undistinguished history of Jew hatred – and Britain’s adoption of the questionable principle of ‘universal jurisdiction’ – whereby states claim criminal jurisdiction over people whose alleged crimes were committed outside the prosecuting state – regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other relation with the prosecuting country – is providing them with another tool with which to promote their intolerance and hate.

As with the recent case of Ehud Barak, who was also fearful of an arrest in Britain, but who went through with his visit last week (after reportedly receiving assurances from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who despite his many other faults is generally regarded as being friendly to Israel); we suspect the case was being made by Michel Massih QC, a ‘Palestinian Arab’ Barrister, practicing in London – spurred on no doubt by the Socialist Workers’ Stop the War Coalition nutcases and their many unsavoury cohort groups.

'Liquid Bomb' Airline Plotter Tanvir Hussein: One of Mr. Massih's typical clients

Massih’s practice specialises in the defence of terrorists and he has taken briefs from clients ranging from Abu Nadal’s Palestinian gunmen, through to present day Islamic terrorists such as Tanvir Hussein, the failed Transatlantic bomb plotter who was recently sentenced to 36 years in prison.

Does there not seem to be more than a little self-interest at work here?

From the hapless Jacqui Smith banning Geert Wilders, an elected MP of an EU country entry into Britain, to the officials from Israel (with whom we are supposedly an ally – although this becomes more questionable by the day), who cannot travel from one free democratic country to another without becoming the victim of vexatious litigation from Marxist and pro-Islamic terror interests – Britain is becoming an international laughing stock.

And Mr Massih, for his part, seems to be in business to represent the people that hate Britain and wish to destroy it.

[Main story: BBC Online]

Please consider supporting Un:dhimmi by making a small donation to the site, in order to show your support and help us with our work.

Get Your Copy of The Documentary the Iranian Régime Doesn’t Want You to See

One Response to “Israeli Minister Cancels British Visit for Fear of Pro-Pali Nutjob-Sponsored Arrest”