Israel halts strategic dialogue with Britain over 'universal jurisdiction'
On Tuesday, I reported that Minister Dan Meridor had canceled a trip to London out of fear of arrest under Britain's 'universal jurisdiction' law. The law remains unchanged despite promises from Prime Minister David Cameron's government that it would be changed immediately upon their taking office. Finally, the Israeli government has decided to fight back: It has halted its 'strategic dialogue' with Britain until the law is changed. Israel has canceled its special strategic dialogue with London to protest a law that enables Britain to arrest visiting Israeli officials for alleged war crimes, officials in Jerusalem said Wednesday.The British embassy in Tel Aviv says that Foreign Secretary William Hague wants the law changed. But guess how Hague spent his day in Israel on Wednesday. I think it's pretty clear whose side he's on, and it's not ours.
The move was announced during British Foreign Secretary William Hague's two-day visit to the region.
"The strategic dialogue has indeed been postponed," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP. "The visit by Foreign Minister Hague is an important phase in the ongoing exchange between the countries and the question of Israeli officials being unable to travel to Britain will be on the top of the agenda as far as we are concerned."
Britain is one of the European pioneers of universal jurisdiction, a broad legal concept that empowers judges to issue arrest warrants for nearly any visitor accused of committing war crimes anywhere in the world.
Pro-Palestinian activists have sought to use this concept to press charges against Israelis involved in military operations in Palestinian territories, particularly since last year's Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. British officials have vowed to change the law.
Labels: Dan Meridor, David Cameron, strategic dialogue, universal jurisdiction, William Hague
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:44 PM
3 Comments:
Like I've said, its high time Israel restricted visiting privileges for UK government officials to the level comparable to that Israeli officials receive there. There is no reason they should be allowed to visit Israel freely while Israelis have to fear arrest when they visit the UK.
Its time to change the rules of the game.
What kind of strategic dialogue?
The UK just slashed their defense spending, especially air and naval forces - no carrier aircraft for 10years.
The UK can no longer project force, so why are we having strategic dialogue?
It might help to explain the legal background. Actually the UK war crimes law was originally intended for Nazis hiding in the UK. Basically, the law gave UK courts jurisdiction over war crimes committed outside Britain.
But Nazis weren’t the only problem - the UK had war criminals from across the world – e.g. Rwanda, Sri Lanka and former Yugoslavia. So the law was later widened to cover all war crimes and genocide worldwide.
However, the law lets third parties force the UK government to issue arrest warrants – as was the case with Tzipi Livni and the others.
While Israelis might be upset, this isn’t UK double standards, or anti-Israel policy. This is brought about by laws drafted in an utterly different context - originally in fact, to catch Nazis.
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