Israeli opposition leader and former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was forced to cancel a planned visit to London at the last moment, following news that a British court had issued a warrant for her arrest.
Livni faced potential war crimes charges for her role in the January invasion of the Gaza Strip. Around 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the invasion.
The former foreign minister issued a statement today claimed that the cancelation was merely do to a “scheduling conflict,” but the Israeli government was able to confirm that the warrant was issued and the cancellation came after that time.
The British government claims “universal jurisdiction” in the case of certain war crimes, and while it traditionally grants immunity to war crimes charges to current foreign ministers, the immunity for former officials has been weakened over the years (as seen in the 1999 arrest of Augusto Pinochet).
Israel has repeatedly slammed attempts to prosecute its officials over the killing of civilians, insisting that the charges are “politically motivated” and that the assorted actions have all been perfectly legal.
Tzipi Livni – that mass murderer of all those Gazans who were killed last year – is what the Israelis refer to as a political "moderate". It is good that the courts of Britain are helping dispel the myth that there is such a thing as a "moderate" element in mainstream israeli politics. When it comes to policy against the Palestinians, they are all racist extremists – all of them.
Now if someone from Hamas landed in England, they would be welcomed with a royal anus licking ceremony.
"Universal Jurisdiction" sounds like "enhanced interrogation," a nice double speak.
No doubt antiwar has some good articles, but when it comes to Israel, bias abounds towards the "Palestinians" who are really just Syrians, Jordanians, and Egyptians.
The Gaza massacre showed to the people of the world the criminal nature of the Israeli Govt. Livni shouldn't be the only one sued.
About Antiwar.com, I wouldn't go any place else(in the MSM) for truthful news/commentaries about Israel.
so you are saying that syria jordan and egypt should liberate their peoples and lands?
since if there are no Palestinians then every time the idf fires on gaza it is declaring war on egypt and every checkpoint in the west bank is a declaration war on jordon.
but if you knew your history before the british halted a saudi army from liberating syria from the french, amman was administered from Damascus so any attack on jordan is really a declaration of war on syria
and have you forgotten about the Lebanese.
as far as "biased towards the Palestinians" do you not recall the United States Congress, passing a bill on the goldstone report. perhaps if the there was some "balance" in the way americans are shown a conflict that they are the primary patrons of, then places that try to give the actual news would not need to focus so much on it.
as far as universal jurisdiction perhaps you should talk to the Israelis about that…
"The moral philosopher Peter Singer, along with Kenneth Roth[5], has cited Israel's prosecution of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 as an assertion of universal jurisdiction. He claims that while Israel did invoke a statute specific to Nazi crimes against Jews, its Supreme Court claimed universal jurisdiction over crimes against humanity"
Dear Schmuck- You live up to your name.
Your paranoid fantasies about Hamas' privileged treatment leave the unmistakable stench of a crypto-Israeli complaining about how the world "hates the Jews" because Israel is about to have its 'license' to murder revoked. Ironically, Universal Jurisdiction is used by Israeli-Americans at OSI to spread fear and hunt down their adversaries while institutionalized Jewish criminality demands perpetual immunity. How sad! How unfair!
It's high time you crawled under some over-sized bagel at J-street and whined to your 'progressive' Zionist co-conspirators there. The age of Zionism is coming to an end.
Well said Mark…
Schmuck wrote, "No doubt antiwar has some good articles, but when it comes to Israel, bias abounds towards the "Palestinians" who are really just Syrians, Jordanians, and Egyptians."
LOL! And most Israelis aren't "really just" Europeans?
Schmuck just got absolutely pwned
No he didn't
Criticism of the war criminals in Israel is NOT justified – is it? After all – the Jews are the "Master Race" and the rest of us are goyim who are merely human excrement – it is okay for the Israelis to murder Palestinians and whomever they want to murder – right? What would one expect from those in Israel? – they are from Satan are they not? The reality is that they have NO connection to the Israelites of the Bible – do they? Perhaps they descend from Cain and have the mark of Cain on them? – you think? Nice to see the Courts of Britain recognize them for the Mass Murderers that they are!
You are probably a WW II vet and you fought for Germany
A moderate israeli like tipzi deathni means you kill 999 palestinians instead of 1000
At last some really good news for a change. Will the controlled media report this? I doubt it. Thank God for Antiwar.com.
Finally the Brits have found their spine, which is more than the rest of the developed world with some notable exceptions such as Sweden. You give us some small hope for humanity!
Damn shame the UK judge didn't wait till Livni was off the plane. Then they could have slapped the cuffs on her, and shown that they were for real. Instead, they opted for symbolism.
Words. It's all words.
Schmuck! Palestinians are palestinians, it is interesting to note the name itself is actually "Philistines" who inhabited the land of Palestine before the Israelites came to it and changed its name to Israel/Judea with Moses. So really if we are going to get technical about it, they are the rightful owners of the land long before the Israelites.
Of course over the years, the Israelites took over and had a kingdom then the first defeat of that kingdom by the Babilonians, then came the Romans, then the diaspora, and Christianity, then Islam, the Ottomans, the British, then came the Zionists.
The real irony is that the Christians and the Muslims of Palestine who lived there before the arrival of the Zionists, a part of them were actually Israelites who converted over the years to these religions. So many of the European Zionists whose ancestors became Jewish are oppressing and killing Israelites, those who trace their lineage to Abraham, who became Christians and Muslims… What a strange world eh…
OberonSky you stopped short of the final act: the Israelites took over and had a kingdom then the first defeat of that kingdom by the Babilonians, then came the Romans, then the diaspora, and Christianity, then Islam, the Ottomans, the British, then came the Zionists – THEN CAME SCIENCE AND LIMITED GOVERNMENT, AND THEN CAME REASON, LOVE AND FREEDOM TO ALL PEOPLES OF THE WORLD! Rationalman
Excellent news!!! Bravo, to the British Court. I'm sure the people of Britian are proud! Can't say the same about the US though.
Ehud Olmert just did a red carpet face saving PR tour from one end of the country to the other. What a dispicable shameless murderer. The actual US citizens protested thank God, The remaining attendees were all Zionists or Israelis.
I can only imagine the Israeli Lobby presented this murdering criminal to show the world, that the Satanic US still supports their murdering war criminals at home and abroad.
At least the brave protesters made their best attempt at a 'Citizen's Arrest' but were themselves arrested. YouTube had the video and it made me proud of at least some of my American neighbours.
Hope the US Government will finally listen to the people and rid their soil of the butcherous Israeli grip.
Israel's enemies are more racist than Israel.
There is no proof that Israel behaves worse than other nations during war time.
Israel's enemies behave worse during war.
Gee, I don' recall the Nazis plundering the corpses of the young men they murdered in order to harvest their body organs for profit. on the black market. I don't recall the Nazis using white phosphorus to murder innocent civilians in schools and hospitals. I don't recall the Nazis behaving like barbarians on any bright blue September mornings or assassinating the presidents of other countries.
Saddam Hussein's government may have executed 61,000 Baghdad residents, a number significantly higher than previously believed, according to a survey obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
The bloodiest massacres of Saddam's 23-year presidency occurred in Iraq's Kurdish north and Shiite Muslim south, but the Gallup Baghdad Survey data indicates the brutality extended strongly into the capital as well.
The survey, which the polling firm planned to release on Tuesday, asked 1,178 Baghdad residents in August and September whether a member of their household had been executed by Saddam's regime. According to Gallup, 6.6 percent said yes.
The polling firm took metropolitan Baghdad's population — 6.39 million — and average household size — 6.9 people — to calculate that 61,000 people were executed during Saddam's rule. Past estimates were in the low tens of thousands. Most are believed to have been buried in mass graves.
The U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq has said that at least 300,000 people are buried in mass graves in Iraq. Human rights officials put the number closer to 500,000, and some Iraqi political parties estimate more than 1 million were executed.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/09/co…
If Saddam murdered "only" 61,000 of his own people, does that excuse Bush murdering over a million Iraqis to "justify" getting rid of Saddam? Same goes for Blair.
Good question. In retrospect, now that Iraq without Saddam sees endless infighting and killings, I bet many Iraqis miss him now for keeping the country together in relative peace. Iraq under Saddam was a secular country, prosperous. Saddam was so dumb to be fooled by Bush into invading Kuwait, which allowed U.S. to attack Iraq–eventually helping Israel to get rid of a strong Arab country for free.
That was then, now the target is Iran. The excuse then was WMD, now it is Iran's nuclear ambition. Anyway, it will be the same American blood and money that will be sacrificed.
Khomeini fatwa 'led to killing of 30,000 in Iran'
By Christina Lamb, Diplomatic Correspondent
Published: 12:00AM GMT 04 Feb 2001
CHILDREN as young as 13 were hanged from cranes, six at a time, in a barbaric two-month purge of Iran's prisons on the direct orders of Ayatollah Khomeini, according to a new book by his former deputy.
More than 30,000 political prisoners were executed in the 1988 massacre – a far larger number than previously suspected. Secret documents smuggled out of Iran reveal that, because of the large numbers of necks to be broken, prisoners were loaded onto forklift trucks in groups of six and hanged from cranes in half-hourly intervals.
Gruesome details are contained in the memoirs of Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, The Memoirs of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, one of the founders of the Islamic regime. He was once considered Khomeini's anointed successor, but was deposed for his outspokenness, and is now under house arrest in the holy city of Qom.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middlee…
you sound like the Mossad agent assigned to this site…… no…???
What a tragic fall for the once proud British people. From fighting and defeating Hitler to defending terrorists that target women & children while sending their own indoctrinated facists children on suicide missions. Plain sick. The Britsish monarchy has no excuse on this one except plain loss of their moral compass. The United States knows right from wrong its in the heart & soul of the people. The murderous Europeans only know world wars and expliotation. Thats why the US got rid of the British couldnt stand their evil culture. Its still there.
Israel is a shining light of goodness. Arent the British smart enough just to see the hate, evil & sickness on the faces of the Muslim fanatics. they are modern day facists, anti-semites like Hitler but more dangerous. .
You maybe right, some Muslims are anti-semites. But don't you know who created them?
The Goldstone report–written by a Jew and Zionist–says it all. Goldstone is to be commended for his courage in holding justice and truth accountable. And the vile arrogant Israeli citizenry who voted for the Nazis will be stained also with these despicable crimes as long as they live. So much for my Judaism for which I feel utter shame.
Israel has been continuously practicing crimes against humanity for decades. Israel has violated its own (UN-granted) charter by occupying and annexing land outside its own (UN-granted) borders of 1948, in direct violation of the UN charter's prohibition of nations retaining lands taken in armed conflicts.
That having been said, it is also true that many Arabs–Palestinians, et al.– also violate human rights principles on numerous occasions.
Barbarians study both the Q'ran and the Torah (and the Xian bible); there is no monopoly on cretins taking political power by invoking religious justifications. All religions are destructive. RLQ