PARIS, Aug 21: Israel has given in to European, and notably French pressure, and has decided to no longer systematically subject Western diplomats to illegal searches of their vehicles, and sometimes of their persons.

The practice — which goes back to the start of Operation Rampart in late March — had been energetically condemned by French diplomats who repeatedly pointed out to the Israeli soldiers who man the checkpoints leading into the Palestinian territories that the searches were purely and simply illegal according to the Vienna Convention, and notably article 22-3.

As it happened, though, the automobiles of ambassadors of the several member countries of the European Union which are theoretically subject to diplomatic immunity, were blocked at checkpoints when the Western diplomats refused to allow Israeli army officers to check the vehicles.

As of mid-August, however, the Israeli army suddenly ceased the searches and since then have limited their intervention to the simple passage of a mirror under the car to check on the presence of explosive devices. Sometimes too, and for the same reason, the soldiers have been known to request access to the front part of a vehicle, never any longer to the trunk or to its passengers.

A French military source familiar with the matter notes that if Israel suddenly chose to come up with the “compromise” position on checks of European diplomatic vehicles, it was largely because the French secret services recently let it be known “loud and clear” to a Paris-based representative of the Mossad that if a change were not made immediately, France was prepared to leak to the press the details of an “embarrassing incident” involving Israeli authorities.

One of the most memorable examples of the previous practice occurred in late May, when the cars transporting diplomats from a number of EU countries were held up several hours at an Israeli army checkpoint when the diplomats objected to the soldiers opening up and rummaging through the trunks of their vehicles.