Thursday 7 April 2011

Bahar asks the Lords to reject law granting immunity to Israeli war criminals

[ 06/04/2011 - 07:11 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Deputy Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmed Bahar has strongly condemned the British House of Commons' approval of a law limiting the UK's power to prosecute Israeli war criminals who step foot in the country, and he has called on the House of Lords, which will review the law next, to reject it.

He said the approval was in response to Israeli pressure and called the move ”surrender to Zionist domination and arrogance that seeks to keep the Zionist entity above international law and moral principles and humanitarian norms and conventions”. He also tagged the approval a ”a stain on the conscience of British democracy.”

The law, he said, implies that Israeli officials that committed war crimes during the 2008-9 aggression against the Gaza Strip would escape from justice, and it would encourage them to commit more crimes against humanity in Palestine.

Bahar called on the House of Lords to reject the law, also calling upon Arab and Muslim communities in England as well as rights groups to lobby the House of Commons to retract the law.

Separately, Bahar spoke the same day as children marched on Palestinian Child Day near the PLC headquarters in Gaza, as was staged by the Gaza ministry of sports and youth.

There he called on United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to follow the situation concerning Gaza children as Israel has boosted aggression in the past two weeks killing scores including several innocent children.

The same day, Bahar received the family of Omar Awad, a Palestinian man held in the UAE, at PLC headquarters as they asked for help in having the prisoner released.

He explained that the PLC had sent a cable to the president of the UAE national council to intervene with the executive authority to release the businessman.

He was arrested two months back while returning to the West Bank after carrying out business in the UAE.

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