30/01/2009 Senior Israeli security officials expressed their outrage over the Spanish court's decision to grant a petition by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights on Thursday, asking that they be charged for alleged "crimes against humanity" for their involvement in the 2002 assassination of Hamas operative Salah Shehade in an air raid that killed 14 other Palestinian civilians including several children and injured more than 100 other people.National Infrastructure Minister and former Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and former Army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon said they were certain the “State” would protect them from any legal action by Spain.
"This is part of the propaganda against the legitimacy of the State of Israel," Yaalon said.
Israel will on Friday appeal the decision to open the probe.
"Israel must act in all ways legal and political to remove the disgrace. This also harms the interest of the countries that host these claims. These countries should stand by Israel against the terror organizations challenging world order" Ben Eliezer said.
Israel is under serious international pressure and condemnation for its recent massacre in Gaza that killed more than 1350 people half of them children and women, and injured well over 5,000 other people with internationally banned white phosphorus bombs.
Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, former GOC Southern Command Doron Almog, former National Security Council Head Giora Eiland and Brigadier-General (Res.) Mike Herzog have also been named as persons on interest in the case.
Should the Spanish judge, Fernando Andreu, choose to issue an international arrest warrant for any of the Israelis in question, they could be arrested upon arrival in any European Union member state.
Ben-Eliezer said, "I am certain Israel will work on the diplomatic and legal fronts against the charges that were brought up in by Spanish court. We were as cautious as possible on the day of the attack (Shehadeh assassination). The Spanish court's decision is hallucinatory, ridiculous and outrageous. They are using the world's courts to fight those who are fighting terror.”
When I gave the order, we were under the assumption that he was alone,” Ben Eliezer said, ignoring the fact that more than 100 people were injured in the attack, thus confirming the Israeli minister’s disregard to Palestinian civilians.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told her Spanish counterpart Miguel Anguel Moratinos that the decision to file the suit was political, adding that it does not affect only those against whom it was brought, but all of Israel.
She said it constituted the most serious incident that had occurred between the two countries, and asked him to take care of it as soon as possible.
Friends of the Gemayyels
"A Spanish judge agreed Thursday to pursue a complaint of crimes against humanity against seven senior Israel army figures over a 2002 bombing raid on Gaza in which a Hamas leader and 14 civilians were killed, a judicial source said. The complaint, which includes former defence minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer as one of its targets, was lodged with the Madrid-based judge Fernando Andreu by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights."
This war criminal was (is?) reportedly close to Amin Gemayyel.
Posted by As'ad at 9:20 AM
The war crimes evidence keeps piling up
Via Action Report Online, an article in Haaretz (my emphasis in red):
"The idea to bombard the closing ceremony of the Gaza police course was internally criticized in the Israel Defense Forces months before the attack. A military source involved in the planning of the attack, in which dozens of Hamas policemen were killed, says that while military intelligence officers were sure the operation should be carried out and pressed for its approval, the IDF's international law division and the military advocate general were undecided."
So:
the Jewish attack could have had nothing to do with whatever Hamas was accused of doing, as it was being planned for months, down to the exact timing of the end of the Gaza police course, indeed months before Hamas had been keeping the ceasefire which the Jews eventually had to break so the Jews could attempt to claim the slaughter was because of the rockets; and
the Jews knew that the planned attack on the Gaza police graduation was an attack on civilians (and there is obviously no possible argument about human shields or whatever other legalese great Jewish minds can scheme up).
Israel officials face war crimes investigation in Spain
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