JERUSALEM, Sept 12: A retired Israeli army general said on Monday he narrowly escaped an attempt to have him arrested while on holiday in Britain and prosecuted over allegations of a war crime against Palestinians.
Doron Almog, former commander of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, said he flew to London with his wife on Sunday, but decided not to disembark after Israel’s ambassador to Britain boarded and warned him that he could be taken into custody.
“I think there is a basic, fundamental problem here, in that any soldier who has taken part in the fight against Palestinian terrorism over the past five years can find himself accused of war crimes,” Gen Almog told Israel’s Channel One television.
A British law firm said it had secured an arrest warrant for Gen Almog in connection with the Israeli army’s demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes in a flashpoint Gaza refugee camp in 2002.
“This unprecedented arrest warrant against a senior Israeli soldier was issued after years of failed efforts to obtain justice through the Israeli judicial system,” Hickman & Rose Solicitors said in a statement.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv said British authorities tipped off the ambassador about the lawsuit. Mark Regev of Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed that ‘partial information that we found troubling’ was received but declined to elaborate on its source.
“We are in touch with British authorities and want to make sure that all the facts in this case are with us,” he said.
A spokesman for the British embassy in Tel Aviv, Neil Wigan, said Britain’s foreign office had no comment on the incident.
Palestinians and their backers abroad have long invoked international law in campaigning against Israeli policies.
The World Court found in favour last year of a Palestinian complaint against Israel’s West Bank barrier, ruling it Illegal as it seizes occupied land. Israel calls the network of fences and concrete barricades a bulwark against suicide bombers.
Human rights group Amnesty International deplored the apparent tipoff in Gen Almog’s case.
“This leak, whether deliberate or accidental, is a matter of serious concern and should be investigated, as it perverted the course of justice and undermined an investigation into war crimes,” the Amnesty said in a statement. —Reuters
