Israeli-British tension over Livni "war crimes" warrant (Roundup)

Dec 15, 2009, 13:43 GMT

London/Jerusalem - Britain and Israel were Tuesday embroiled in a potentially damaging diplomatic row over a 'war crimes' arrest warrant issued - then retracted - by a British judge for former Israeli foreign minister and opposition leader Tzipi Livni.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry Tuesday officially condemned the British action, urging London to stop 'radical' pro-Palestinian groups from 'exploiting' its legal system under a 1988 law giving courts in England and Wales universal jurisdiction in war crimes cases.

The warrant marks the second time an Israeli minister or former minister has faced arrest in Britain, following similar efforts to apprehend former Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak during a visit to Britain in September.

The Foreign Office in London, clearly embarrassed by the episode, said Tuesday that it would not comment on the matter 'for legal reasons,' as it was an issue for the court to deal with.

'We are looking urgently at the implications of this case,' a Foreign Office statement said. 'The UK is determined to do all it can to promote peace in the Middle East and to be a strategic partner of Israel. To do this, Israel`s leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British government.'

Neither the British justice ministry, nor Scotland Yard or Westminster Magistrates Court were prepared to comment Tuesday. 'We are not prepared to discuss this,' a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said.

But according to the British media said the warrant was issued at the request of lawyers acting for some of the Palestinian victims of the fighting in Gaza between late December 2008 and late January, but it was later dropped.

Israel's Foreign Ministry called the court decision 'cynical' and called on the British government to 'implement once and for all its promises to act against the attempts by anti-Israeli elements to exploit the British legal system against Israel and its citizens.'

'Israel rejects the cynical and legal step taken at the initiative of radical elements in the British court,' ministerial spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

Livni, now Israel's opposition leader, had been due to address a conference hosted by a Jewish charity group in London last Sunday but cancelled her attendance, the Guardian newspaper reported.

Tayab Ali, the solicitor who tried to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Barak on behalf of 16 Palestinians, told the Guardian his firm was 'ready, willing and able to act for clients to seek the arrest of anyone suspected of war crimes' who travelled to Britain.

In Israel, Livni's office was reported as saying that she had decided in advance not to travel to Britain. But lawyers had appeared unaware of that when they approached the court last week.

The judge had refused to issue the warrant until it was clear Livni was in fact in the country, as he had been erroneously informed on Sunday, said the Guardian.

Samuel Hayek, the chairman of the Jewish National Fund in Britain, where Livni had been invited to speak, said in a statement: 'I am not at liberty to confirm her precise reasons for not attending. In any event, it is regrettable that the British government is unable to conduct free dialogue with Israel's most senior statesmen and politicians.'

According to the Guardian report, Livni`s office told the Ynet website: 'Scheduled meetings with government figures in London could not take place close to the conference and would have necessitated a longer-than-planned absence from Israel.'

In September, the same court was asked to issue a warrant for the arrest of Barak while he was attending a meeting at the British Labour Party conference in Brighton.

He escaped arrest after the Foreign Office told the court that he was a serving minister at the time who would be meeting his British counterparts. The court that he enjoyed immunity under the State Immunity Act 1978. As an ex-minister, Livni would not enjoy any such immunity.

According to the Guardian, Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon turned down an invitation to attend a London fundraising event last month after he was warned he might face arrest on suspicion of war crimes.

In September, 2005, detectives waited at London's Heathrow airport to arrest Doron Almog, a retired Israeli general, on war crimes allegations dating back to 2002.

But the general stayed put on the plane for several hours before returning home.

The Guardian said Israeli ministers wishing to visit Britain in a personal capacity had begun asking the Israeli embassy in London to arrange meetings with British officials in an effort to gain a degree of legal protection from arrest.