[Jerusalem Post] Jonny Paul - President Shimon Peres met with British Foreign Minister David Miliband last Thursday and expressed Israel's displeasure over the Universal Jurisdiction law, which has been exploited by pro-Palestinian activists to try to arrest former IDF personnel on "war crimes" charges when they visit the UK. "The Israeli army is peace-seeking and makes huge efforts not to harm civilians," Peres said. "Britain and the U.S. use similar tactics [to Israel's] in their operations in Iraq and Afghanistan." In 2005, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Doron Almog, former Head of the Southern Command, avoided arrest at London's Heathrow Airport. He was warned not to disembark from his El Al flight as British detectives were waiting to arrest him for allegedly ordering the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza in 2002. Using a loophole in Britain's Universal Jurisdiction legislation, Palestinian campaigners have filed private criminal complaints of "war crimes" against military personnel, even if the military personnel are citizens of other countries and the alleged charges were not committed on British soil.
2008-11-25 08:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive