MP: Israeli leaders must stand trial

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=130671§ionid=351020202



An Israeli lawmaker has called for trial of Tel Aviv officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for deliberately harassing the residents of the Gaza Strip.

"In its 62 years of existence, Israel has attacked its neighbors and its Arab citizens nonstop," Arab Israeli MP Afu Aghbaria said at a hearing of the European Parliament on Tuesday.

"Israel prevents the passage of medicines and medical supplies to Gaza. As a result of this, 700 Gazans have died at the border crossings," Ha'aretz quoted Aghbaria as saying.

He urged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman should stand trial in international court in The Hague.

The lawmaker also called for the trial of Tzipi Livni, who served as Israel's foreign minister during a December 2008-January 2009 Israeli offensive which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and devastated a large part of the territory's infrastructure.

Aghbaria's criticism of Israeli leaders faced angry reaction from two other Israeli parliament members, Kadima MP Nahman Shai and Labor MP Einat Wolf, who participated in the meeting organized by the Communist Party in the European Parliament.

In a joint statement, Shai and Wilf condemned Aghbaria's words as "very grave," and a serious blow to Israeli efforts to "calm spirits, lessen the damage and bring a positive message to the European Parliament."

Israel has faced unprecedented criticism from the international community in the past two weeks over its deadly attack on a Gaza-bound aid convoy, which shed new light on the adversity caused by Tel Aviv's paralyzing blockade of the Gaza Strip.