[News] Spanish court opens war crimes investigation into 2002 attack on Gaza
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Fri Jan 30 17:47:29 EST 2009
2 Articles follow
Spanish court opens war crimes investigation into 2002 attack on Gaza
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4670&Itemid=1
30.01.09 - 16:14
Gaza / PNN - On Thursday the Spanish National
Court issued its formal decision to investigate
Israeli leaders for war crimes.
As the highest Spanish judicial council, the
court joined legal experts throughout the world
in taking to task the Israelis for acts against the Gaza Strip.
While many of the cases currently being sent to
The Hague, and those in other national courts,
focus on the major attacks on Gaza which began 27
December, decades of war crimes charges have been filed in the past.
The Spanish court is focusing on seven former
senior Israeli military officials suspected to
have committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip in 2002.
Former Defense Minister and current
Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, his
former military advisor, Michael Herzog, former
Israeli Army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, former
Commander of the Israeli Air Force Dan Halutz,
former Head of the Israeli Intelligence Service,
Avi Dichter, former Head of the Israeli Southern
Command Doron Almog, and former Head of the
Israeli National Security Council Giora Eiland
were called yesterday to present themselves to
the Spanish National Court within 30 days. If
they do not, the court will issue international warrants for their arrests.
In addition to this decision, described as
ground-breaking by the Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights in Gaza City, the Spanish court
announced that if intent to exterminate the
Palestinian population can be proven the charge may be increased to genocide.
The Spanish court is dealing with the
assassination of Salah Shehada on 22 July 2002.
It was at approximately midnight that an Israeli
warplane dropped a 2,000 pound bomb on the home
of the Al Qassam Brigades leader. The attack
killed Shehada and 17 other people including his
wife and daughter, his bodyguard, and eight
children. One of the children was just two months
old. Also killed were two elderly men and two
women. This was a major attack in the Daraj
neighborhood of Gaza City that completely
destroyed 11 houses and injured 77 other civilians.
The PCHR in Gaza City undertook the case,
bringing the lawsuit via the National Court of
Spain in June 2008.
.after lengthy
consultations with international legal experts
indicted the possibility of launching universal
jurisdiction cases regarding war crimes committed
by IOF. The Centre notes that similar cases of
suspected war crimes have previously been filed
in Israeli courts, but did not lead to successful
prosecutions. On the contrary, the Israeli
judiciary has been used as a legal cover for the
perpetration of war crimes against the
Palestinian population, and as a tool to
deliberately hinder international jurisdiction
under the pretext of a fair national judicial
system operating in Israel, reads a news release
welcoming Thursdays court decision.
As described by the PCHR, the well-respected
organization previously filed a lawsuit in the
UK against former Head of the Israeli Army
Southern Commend, Doron Almog, for committing
grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention
during his army service, (considered a criminal
offense in the UK under the Geneva Conventions of
1949) Almog arrived in the UK on 10 September
2005, after a warrant had been issued for his
arrest. Having been informed of the warrant
before he disembarked, Almog subsequently fled
straight back to Israel on the same plane.
***********************************************************************
Spanish Judge accepts PCHR lawsuit against senior
Israeli officials, Israel to appeal decision
http://www.imemc.org/article/58696
Friday January 30, 2009 11:47 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies
A Spanish judge accepted a lawsuit filed by the
Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)
against senior Israeli officials for committing
war crimes against the Palestinian people after
the officials gave the go ahead for shelling the
house of a senior Hamas leader in 2002, killing
15 Palestinians and wounding more than 100, the Arabs48 news website reported.
At least nine of the casualties in the shelling
were children and women. The Israeli Army dropped
a 15 ton bomb on the house of Salah Shihada, a Hamas leader.
The Spanish Judge, Fernando Andreu, accepted the
lawsuit, which was filed by the PCHR, and sent
two letters; one to Israel informing Israeli
officials that a probe is underway, and the
second to the Palestinian Authority informing
them that the case has been accepted.
Israel claims that Shihada is responsible for
hundreds of attacks against Israeli targets, and
considers him the person in charge of
communication between the political and military leaders of Hamas.
He was considered in charge of all Hamas
military actions since the beginning of the al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000.
One of the Israeli officials charged of
committing war crimes is Infrastructure Minister,
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. Six other former, and
current officials are also facing the same charges.
Ben- Eliezer was serving as the Israeli Defense
Minister at the time of the attack. After the
Spanish judge announced his decision, Ben-Eliezer
described the decision as ridiculous and outrageous.
Ben- Eliezer added that terror groups are using
the international courts and democracies to file
lawsuits against those who counter terrorism.
Judge Andreu said that Shihada is a densely
populated civilian area, and targeting it could
constitute a crime against humanity, Israeli online daily Haaretz reported.
The Israeli embassy in Madrid started preparing
documents in cooperation with Israeli officials to justify the attack.
Several Israeli officials said that Israel is now
preparing itself for a wave of lawsuits by human
rights groups for attacks in Gaza, and in other Palestinian areas.
They added that they fear Israel would be forced
to accept international probes, or its officials
would be facing personal lawsuits in different
countries similar to a lawsuit in Britain against
Israeli officials for committing war crimes against the Palestinian people.
Freedom Archives
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415 863-9977
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