Brown moves to heal Israel's arrest wound

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120017&sectionid=351020601


The British premier is to propose changes to ordering arrests under international law after a warrant against former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni forced her to cancel her UK visit in December.

The proposed changes come amid a diplomatic row with Israel triggered by a UK court's ruling following an application by Palestinian activists, slapping Livni — Israel's foreign minister during the Gaza War — with an arrest warrant.

The decision infuriated Tel Aviv and made London to rush to appease its old-time Mideast ally, promoting a pledge from UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to change the law that allows judges to consider a case for an arrest warrant over war crimes allegations brought by any individual.

On Thursday, Brown was to present the proposed legal changes to a parliamentary committee which will then be consulted on before the government legislates, the Daily Telegraph reported.

In an article in the paper, the prime minister said proposals would put the public prosecution service and not judges in charge of considering whether an arrest warrant was necessary in any case brought under international law.

"The only question for me is whether our purpose is best served by a process where an arrest warrant for the gravest crimes can be issued on the slightest of evidence," Brown said.

"As we have seen, there is now significant danger of such a provision being exploited by politically-motivated organizations or individuals," he wrote.

Judges in Britain can issue arrest warrants for war crimes suspects around the world under the Geneva Convention Act 1957 without any requirement to consult public prosecutors.

A London court last year issued a warrant for the arrest of now Israeli opposition leader Livni over her role in Tel Aviv's 22-day onslaught last January against the Gaza Strip, and killing of over 1,400 Palestinians — mostly civilians.

Livni on Thursday welcomed the proposed change and attacked the original decision as based on a legislation she called "an absurd use of this law."

This is while the UN Human Rights Council's independent fact-finding commission on the Gaza war charged Israel with deliberate targeting of civilians, using Palestinians as human shields and the killing of fleeing civilians who in some cases were even waving a white flag.

In January, Israel submitted an official report to the United Nations and admitted that its military had "endangered human life" through the use of internationally forbidden phosphorus munitions against the Gazans seeking shelter in a UN Relief and Works Agency compound.