Europe arrests may bar Israeli trips

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Posted by realistic bird under Politics Tags: Politics, news, palestine, Gaza, Europe, war crimes, Israeli crimes, ICC, Palestinians, UN, crimes against humanity, Goldstone report, Israeli officials, arrests

Thu, 15 Oct 2009, Press TV

Concerns of facing arrests in Europe shroud Israel’s hawkish government as the Goldstone report on Gaza wins more support across the world.

The Israeli government is reportedly considering limitations on its officials’ travel to Europe fearing that they could be arrested over charges of committing war crimes during the Gaza war in January.

Israel’s Western allies on Wednesday called on Tel Aviv for a credible investigation into UN allegations of possible war crimes by the Israel Defense Forces during the winter conflict in the Gaza Strip.

“Currently there is no specific advisory and different senior officers are continuing their travel as planned,” army spokesperson Avital Leibovitz told The Washington Times, adding the army was discussing Foreign Ministry and other Israeli authorities’ possible restrictions on the travel of senior officials to Europe.

The Gaza war report by an independent international investigative committee has drawn much criticism from Israeli officials for highlighting Israeli army’s crimes against Palestinians during the weeks-long incursion of the Gaza Strip.

The damning document has brushed off Israeli hopes to finally normalize ties with Arab states and marred Israel’s relations with those few Arab countries who have peace deals with Tel Aviv.

But the report, which is finding its way to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over Israel’s failure to conduct an independent and vivid inquiry into crimes committed during the Gaza war, has panicked Israel over possible arrest warrants against its officials in European countries.

The Israeli government is holding talks with Spain, Norway, Britain and other EU countries in a bid to bar international courts from ‘intervening in the issue’.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday hurled still another tirade against the UN report, vowing not to let the Israeli officials who launched the Gaza war ‘arrive at’ the International Court in The Hague.

The Goldstone report gives Israel six months to investigate the war crimes charges before recommending that the matter be sent to the ICC.