Palestine

[Al-khiyal]

'Significant progress' in attempts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah

January 3, 2010 -- The leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, today said significant progress had been made in Egyptian-sponsored talks aimed at reconciling the militant Palestinian group with its rival Fatah movement. The two main Palestinian factions have been bitterly divided since Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, leaving the western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, in control of only the West Bank. The split has complicated attempts to reach peace with Israel as well as reconstruction of the impoverished, war-damaged Gaza Strip. Efforts to bring Hamas and Fatah together in a power-sharing arrangement failed and the Egyptian-mediated talks are now focused on ending the division by holding new Palestinian elections.

Mashaal, based in Syria, said Hamas had reservations about the latest Egyptian proposal, which calls for presidential and legislative elections in the first half of this year as well as a reorganisation of the security forces under the authority of Abbas. Hamas and seven Damascus-based Palestinian factions have rejected the proposal because it does not state that Palestinians have the right to keep fighting Israel. Fatah, which favors negotiations with Israel, has accepted it. "We have made big strides in the ... negotiations and talks that have taken place in Cairo," Mashaal said. "We are in the final stages. The problem is the completion of the [Egyptian] paper ... so it can satisfy everybody's demands."

[Al-khiyal]

Israeli military cancels UK visit over arrest fears

January 5, 2010 -- The Israeli military has cancelled a visit by a team of its officers to Britain over fears that they risked arrest on possible war crimes charges. It is the latest case in which high-profile Israeli politicians or army officers have pulled out of visits to Britain for fear of arrest over war crimes allegations under laws of universal jurisdiction. Israeli leaders have grown increasingly frustrated about the threat of legal action against individuals and are pressing the British government to change the law. Baroness Scotland, the attorney general, was in Israel today and due to meet with the Israeli justice minister, Yaakov Neeman, and deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, to talk about the issue. A group of officers, reportedly from the rank of major up to colonel, were invited by the British army for a meeting on military co-operation but cancelled last week, the Guardian has learned. According to the Israeli paper Yedioth Ahronoth, Israeli officials feared possible arrest warrants and contacted British authorities to demand a guarantee that the officers would not be arrested. Last week, British officials, reportedly, said they could offer no such guarantee and the Israeli military promptly cancelled the visit. The Israel Defence Force declined to comment.

Three weeks ago a British court issued an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister, at the request of lawyers acting for Palestinian victims of Israel's war in Gaza. The warrant was withdrawn when it became clear Livni was not in the country but it provoked a storm of protest in Israel. Ayalon said the issue was damaging Israel's relations with Britain. "The risk to senior Israeli figures does concrete and immediate damage to bilateral relations," he told Yedioth Ahronoth. "Organisations that are hostile to Israel try to exploit the legal channels and legal tools to threaten the Israeli and British decision-makers, including the authorities of the attorney general herself, and to thereby create political facts that should be determined around the diplomatic negotiating table," he added. He said he would raise the issue in his meeting with Baroness Scotland. After the Livni arrest warrant there were discussions in Britain about changing the legal process so that the attorney general would first approve warrants before suspected war criminals could be arrested. The "safeguards" were to apply to all visiting foreign leaders, not just Israelis, but provoked outrage from lawyers.

In October, Moshe Ya'alon, a former general and current cabinet minister, turned down an invitation to visit London for fear of arrest over an Israeli air strike in Gaza dating back to 2002. A week earlier lawyers tried to secure an arrest warrant against Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, while he was visiting Britain but it did not succeed since as a serving minister he still has diplomatic immunity. In 2005 an Israeli general, Doron Almog, was nearly arrested by police at Heathrow airport for a private prosecution again based on military operations in Gaza but he was tipped off, did not leave the plane and flew out of the country avoiding arrest.

[Al-khiyal]

One Palestinian killed, three wounded by Israeli shelling

GAZA, January 5, 2010 (KUNA) -- One Palestinian was killed and three injured in Israeli bombings targeting a Palestinian group in Qarrara town, southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday, Palestinian medical sources said. Local radio stations quoted the sources as saying that Israeli reconnaissance aircraft fired a missile on a group of brigades of Al-Nasser Salah Al-Deen, which killed Jihad Al-Smairi and inuured three others. The wounded were rushed to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, said the sources, noting that two of the victims were suffering from serious injuries.

[Al-khiyal]

Israeli military cancels UK visit over arrest fears

British government will fight legal attempts to indict Israeli leaders in UK

January 5, 2010 -- The government is determined to protect high-ranking Israeli officials from arrest in the UK, the attorney general said, as it emerged that a further visit by the Israeli military had been cancelled. Speaking at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem today, Baroness Scotland said Israeli leaders should not face arrest for war crimes under the law of "universal jurisdiction", following attempts by British lawyers last month to obtain a warrant for the former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni. "The government is looking urgently at ways in which the UK system might be changed to avoid this situation arising again," Scotland said. "Israel's leaders should always be able to travel freely to the UK." Scotland's assurance comes as the Guardian learned that the Israeli military had cancelled a visit by a team of its officers to Britain after fears they risked arrest on possible war crimes charges. A group of officers, reportedly from the rank of major up to colonel, were invited by the British army for a meeting on military co-operation but cancelled last week. There were also reports today that Israeli officials feared possible arrest warrants and contacted British authorities to demand a guarantee that the officers would not be arrested. Last week, British officials reportedly said they could offer no such guarantee and the Israeli military promptly cancelled the visit. The Israeli military, also referred to as the Israel Defence Force, declined to comment. News of the latest cancellation by high-profile Israeli politicians or army officers is likely to intensify debate around the ability of UK-based lawyers to obtain arrest warrants. In October, Moshe Ya'alon, a former general and current cabinet minister, turned down an invitation to visit London for fear of arrest over an Israeli air strike in Gaza dating back to 2002. Two weeks earlier, lawyers also tried to secure an arrest warrant against Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, while he was visiting Britain. They did not succeed since as a serving minister Barak still has diplomatic immunity. Israeli leaders have grown increasingly frustrated about the threat of legal action against individuals and said they would be pressing Scotland to change UK law in meetings today in Jerusalem. "The risk to senior Israeli figures does concrete and immediate damage to bilateral relations", said the deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, today. "Organisations that are hostile to Israel try to exploit the legal channels and legal tools to threaten the Israeli and British decision-makers, including the authorities of the attorney general herself, and to thereby create political facts that should be determined around the diplomatic negotiating table."The UK is one of a number of countries where private prosecutions can be brought for alleged war crimes committed abroad. Following the attempt to obtain an arrest warrant for Livni from a London magistrates' court last month, the Guardian reported Foreign Office plans to change the legal process so that the attorney general would first approve warrants before suspected war criminals could be arrested. The "safeguards" were to apply to all visiting foreign leaders, not just Israelis, but provoked outrage from lawyers. "If there is evidence against Israeli leaders and a judge thinks that there is a case to answer, then why does the process need to be changed?", said Daniel Machover, a partner at Hickman & Rose, whose firm obtained an arrest warrant in 2005 for the Israeli general, Doron Almog. "In my view, it is not constitutionally proper to give the attorney general involvment at the arrest stage. We would not have a politician standing next to a policeman who decides whether or not to arrest someone, why should we have a politician standing next to a judge?"

[Al-khiyal]

Egyptian police clash with Gaza aid convoy

January 6, 2010 -- Egyptian security forces clashed today with a pro-Palestinian convoy led by the British MP George Galloway as it tried to deliver aid supplies into the Gaza Strip. The convoy of 198 trucks and more than 500 supporters left London a month ago hoping to enter Gaza despite the Israeli economic blockade. The trucks are now at el-Arish, an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean, a few miles south of Gaza. Several protesters and police officers were injured after clashes early today. Reuters reported that Egyptian police threw stones at the crowd and arrested seven demonstrators, while some members of the convoy held four harbour police officers. Police fired water cannon to disperse the crowd that had gathered to receive the aid trucks.

Israel's strict blockade of Gaza, which has been in place for more than two years, prevents all exports and limits imports to a few humanitarian items. The policy has grown ever tighter since Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement, won parliamentary elections in early 2006 and then seized full security control of Gaza a year later. Israel now regards the strip, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, as a "hostile entity". Egypt, too, has kept its one border crossing with Gaza, at Rafah, largely closed. Egyptian officials told the convoy some of their trucks could not pass through Rafah, but had to enter into southern Israel and then pass through an Israeli-controlled crossing into Gaza. There was no guarantee that the trucks would be allowed to enter the strip. Galloway said that was unacceptable. "We refused this," he said. "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza. Because nothing that ever goes to Israel, ever arrives in Gaza." Egypt has tried to curb a wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past month after hundreds of foreigners tried to reach the Gaza border to mark the one-year anniversary of Israel's war in Gaza in which nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. At the same time, Egyptian officials are building a new, underground steel wall along their border with Gaza in an apparent effort to prevent smuggling. Hundreds of smuggling tunnels dug by Palestinians reach into northern Egypt and supply Gaza with a wide range of products from food to cars. Israel and the U.S. have said they are concerned about weapons smuggling.

Israeli military officials said today they would consult more closely with their legal advisers during future combat operations after a wave of international criticism over last year's war in Gaza. General Gabi Ashkenazi, the chief of staff, had ordered the military to consult with legal advisers not just while planning an operation but during an offensive as well, officials said. The orders appeared to be a reaction to the serious, documented allegations of war crimes raised by human rights groups and, most prominently, a UN investigation which was strongly critical of Israel's policy and accused both the Israeli military and Hamas of war crimes. However, although the military has said it is investigating some incidents from the war the Israeli government has still not agreed to the independent inquiry that the UN investigation recommended. Hamas, too, has rejected any such inquiry. Israeli leaders have insisted their troops did not breach international law and were fighting in Gaza only to halt Palestinian militant rocket fire into southern Israel. The threat of further investigations still remains, however. An Israeli military visit to Britain was cancelled last week for fear of arrests over war crimes allegations and last month a British court briefly issued an arrest warrant for the former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni before withdrawing it after realising she was not in the country.

[Al-khiyal]

Egyptian police clash with Gaza aid convoy

Egyptian guard dies in clashes over Gaza aid convoy

January 6, 20101 -- An Egyptian border guard was killed and 15 Palestinians injured today in clashes on the Gaza border after an international aid convoy was delayed entering the strip. The sudden and rare outbreak of violence between Gazans and Egyptians signals growing frustration among Palestinians with Egypt's attempt to seal the border with an underground steel wall to cut off hundreds of smuggling tunnels. At first, Egyptian security forces clashed with a pro-Palestinian convoy led by the British MP George Galloway which has spent the past month travelling from London to deliver 198 truckloads of aid and supplies to Gaza in a challenge to Israel's economic blockade of the strip. Several protesters and policemen were injured after clashes at el-Arish, an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean, a few miles south of Gaza, where the trucks were waiting.

Later, there were large demonstrations by Palestinians just over the border inside Gaza. Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that won elections four years ago and controls Gaza, called for a protest over the delay of the Viva Palestina aid convoy, which quickly got out of hand. An Egyptian border guard on a watchtower was shot dead and nine others were injured by stones. Shots were also reported from the Egyptian side of the border. Several Palestinians were seriously injured. Ehab Ghussein, a Hamas spokesman, said frustration about Egypt's new underground wall was fuelling the protests. "There was anger, and that's because of what happened, especially about the wall and [Egypt preventing entry of] the people who are coming to stand with us," he said.

Israel's strict blockade of Gaza, which has been in place for more than two years, prevents all exports and limits imports to a few humanitarian items. Egypt has also kept its one border crossing with Gaza, at Rafah, largely closed. Egyptian officials told the convoy some of their trucks could not pass through Rafah, but had to enter into southern Israel and then pass through an Israeli-controlled crossing into Gaza. There was no guarantee that the trucks would be allowed to enter the strip. "We refused this," said Galloway. "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza. Because nothing that ever goes to Israel, ever arrives in Gaza."

Egypt has tried to curb a wave of pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past month after hundreds of foreigners tried to reach the Gaza border to mark the first anniversary of Israel's war in Gaza, in which nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. Under pressure from the U.S. and Israel, Egypt has started building a vast steel wall along its side of the Gaza border to prevent smuggling. Hundreds of smuggling tunnels dug by Palestinians reach into northern Egypt and supply Gaza with a wide range of products from food and clothing to animals and cars. Israel and the U.S. have said they are concerned about weapons smuggling.

[Al-khiyal]

British government will fight legal attempts to indict Israeli leaders in UK

Lady Scotland opens a can of worms

January 6, 2010 -- There is no denying the fact that high-ranking Israeli officials are at risk of being arrested for war crimes if they travel to the UK. It's difficult to convey how high passions about this state of affairs run on both sides of the debate, but one thing is clear. The question of whether things should change has not so far been a question of law. The argument has been ignited and fuelled entirely by questions of politics. The political factors are well rehearsed. Foreign Office officials describe the effect of Tzipi Livni's possible arrest for example, as highly damaging for diplomatic relations with Israel and the UK's ability to play a useful role in peace negotiations. There is undeniable embarrassment for our ministers if they are forced to look on, helpless, as their friends and colleagues from Israel languish in police custody because of a warrant which, it's true to say, would not necessarily even lead to charges being brought.

This is where the legal factors come in. That helplessness arises not from a problem with the law, but the fact that it works. The UK's independent judiciary have, on occasions at least, been applying the law irrespective of its potential for political inconvenience. Israel – whose supreme court has become a world leader in human rights jurisprudence, often to the great inconvenience of its own government – is perfectly familiar with this process. There is nothing for politicians to apologise for because, as everyone understands, the courts are a separate branch of state and not in any way under the executive's control. So when a district judge at Westminster magistrates' court issues an arrest warrant, he or she is doing what judges do in any other case – forming a view on the evidence against the person in question, and applying the law that has been enacted by parliament. The law in this case creates "universal jurisdiction", which enables a person to be arrested in this country for an alleged offence committed abroad. It's unfortunate that the only high-profile cases of attempted arrests for war crimes have been of Israeli officials, because the purpose of the law is to provide a means of enforcing penalties for the most serious international crimes – war crimes, torture, genocide – committed anywhere. Weakening the ability of our courts to do so would protect not only Israelis but leaders across the world, in countries whom our government is less fond of diplomatically, who have been accused of violating rights on a massive scale.

Yesterday the attorney general gave her clearest indication yet that weakening the ability of the UK's courts to enforce universal jurisdiction is exactly what the government is planning to do. "The government is looking urgently at ways in which the UK system might be changed to avoid this situation arising again," she said, speaking at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem yesterday and referring obviously to the recent attempts to obtain a warrant for Livni and Ehud Barak. "[The government] is determined that Israel's leaders should always be able to travel freely to the UK," she added. This announcement was unambiguously a political one – the attorney general did not in any way address the legal or constitutional implications of her assurance. But these implications are profound. What the government is suggesting is not so much changing the law, as interfering with the procedure. Instead of allowing a judge to use their discretion by deciding whether the evidence is sufficient to issue a warrant – the fundamental "safeguard" which has already prevented warrants being issued in the past, the attorney general would have to agree.

In case there is any doubt who the attorney general is, it's worth remembering that she is a cabinet member in all but name, and the government's chief legal adviser. To have such a senior member of the executive involved in the nascent stages of cases is nothing short of interference with the judicial process. Such interference would be serious regardless of the circumstances. But the fact is, this comes at a time when there is near consensus that the direct interference of the executive in individual cases is an anathema to the rule of law. This was the verdict of the high court in the BAE case – where the attorney general's interference in a Serious Fraud Office prosecution to avoid damaging relations with Saudi Arabia was described as painting "so bleak a picture of the impotence of the law" that it "invites at least dismay, if not outrage". Even the government acknowledges that it is not constitutionally sustainable for the attorney general to have a role in individual cases, announcing last year that the holder of the post would no longer have a direct role in all but the most sensitive for national security. Yet here we have an attempt to give the attorney general not only increased powers to interfere in individual cases, but at an unprecedented stage of proceedings. Because when it comes to the decision as to whether charges should be brought – which is a distinct and subsequent stage to a warrant being issued – the attorney general is already required to consent. If the government seriously wishes to advance this kind of role for the attorney general in war crimes cases, and consider the range of legal and constitutional issues this involves, then bring it on. But for the attorney general to make off-the-cuff announcements in Israel of a purely political nature about what is in reality a serious question of domestic law, without any wider consultation in the UK … well it's where another of the attorney's job descriptions springs to mind: "guardian of the rule of law". Maybe that's the one she should focus on in future.