Soccer Dad

It Takes Two To Conduct Lawfare--Israel Responds To Attempts To Arrest Its Leaders

Hamas has now claimed responsibility for the warrant to arrest Tzipi Livni in Great Britain:

The Islamist group Hamas is masterminding efforts to have senior Israeli leaders arrested for alleged war crimes when they visit European countries including Britain, a top Hamas official involved in the effort has told The Times.

The campaign by Hamas takes advantage of an aspect of law in England and Wales that allows anyone to apply for an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes without the need for a prosecuting lawyer. The identity of the person or organisation that applied for Ms Livni's warrant has not been made public, but Hamas says that it initiated the move.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday that the Government was "looking urgently at ways in which the UK system might be changed in order to avoid this sort of situation arising again".

Well, if Hamas is really eager that international law be applied to war criminals, Israel is ready to start treating Palestinian terrorists as the law actually dictates:

For Immediate Release

December 21, 2009

HIGH COURT PETITION: CAPTURED HAMAS TERRORISTS

MUST BE TRIED AS WAR CRIMINALS

(JERUSALEM) The human rights organization Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center

has filed a petition today to the High Court of Justice (BAGATZ) in

Jerusalem demanding that Hamas terrorists arrested by Israel be tried for

war crimes and crimes against humanity, not just murder as is the current

practice.

According to the petition, the Attorney General violated Israeli law by

refusing to indict the terrorists who fire rockets into Israel for war

crimes and crimes against humanity-crimes that carry a life sentence without

the possibility of pardon or early release.

Israel is bound by the humanitarian provisions of the Fourth Geneva

Convention, as well as the Hague Convention and other international

treaties, which stipulate that the deliberate targeting of civilians in the

context of an armed conflict is a war crime; while the deliberate and

systemic assault against a particular civilian population constitutes a

crime against humanity.

By engaging in terror activity and deliberately launching Kassam and Grad

rockets into Israeli civilian centers during Operation Cast Lead, Hamas

activists repeatedly and systematically targeted civilians, and specifically

Israeli civilians, for murder-placing them squarely in the definition of

both war crimes and crimes against humanity. Citing previous Supreme Court

rulings, the petition notes that such international law has been accepted as

binding on Israeli courts and law enforcement authorities.

According to the petition, the State of Israel, having suffered inordinately

from the horrors of terrorism, has a unique duty to serve as a model in the

battle against the war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by

terrorists and recognized as such under international law.

According to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin and attorney

for the plaintiffs, "The Goldstone Commission report showed that the

Attorney General's policy of indicting Hamas terrorists for ordinary crimes

rather than crimes against humanity has fanned the flames of war crimes

accusations against Israeli leaders and soldiers by the UN and the

Europeans. Not only has this policy played down the heinous nature of the

genocidal atrocities of Hamas, it has left the field open for Israel's

enemies to make wrong and dangerous claims against us. The failure to indict

Hamas activists for crimes against humanity is immoral, hurts Israel's

interests and, above all, is in flagrant violation of Israeli law."

FOR MORE INFORMATION: (ISRAEL) 972-3-751-4175, 972-52-383-7020

(US) 212-591-0073, Email: info@israellawcenter.org [emphasis added]

Universal Jurisdiction did not start with the Goldstone Report; neither did the attempts to accuse Israeli leaders of being war criminals and attempt to arrest them. What the Goldstone Report did do, however, is give the appearance of legality and justification to such actions.

The resultant chaos is attributable to the sloppiness and bias of the Goldstone Report and to those connected to it

by Daled Amos