Israeli war crimminals

Recent reports suggest that the government is considering giving politicians the veto over international arrest warrants. I didn't blog about this at the time, but a recent prompting by Amnesty gave me a call to action. I got off my arse and emailed Gordon Brown, using the page here.

I don't think it worth rephrasing everything and repeating myself, so I'll just copy what I wrote to Mr Brown, as I think it explains my views quite well.

Dear Mr Brown,

I read with alarm that Mr Ivan Lewis and Mr David Miliband are suggesting that the UK should reconsider our laws concerning the bringing to trial of suspected war criminals.

If a British court using the British justice system has determined that an individual has enough evidence against them for there to be a case to answer, then there is a case to answer and a warrant should be issued. Not allowing the courts to even consider the case would be a worse travesty than ignoring their decisions.

The motivation for the proposed changes appear to be solely concerned with saving the Israeli government some embarrassment. I would suggest that the Israeli government would be better served by the simple expedient of not appointing to government positions any person who has outstanding evidence of war crimes against their name. At least until such time as they have answered the charges in full and have been acquitted after due process.

The Israeli government could save themselves further embarrassment by the equally simple and just measure of handing over investigations of allegations against their armed services to an independent body, preferably from a neutral country, and prosecuting to the full extent of the law wherever it is determined that crimes have taken place.

Britain has a simple choice: we can honour the law, or we can make it clear that we honour the law for everyone except our friends. This is not a just position to take, and should this country adopt it, our reputation would suffer considerable harm - and rightly so.

All ethical considerations aside: at a time when this country is trying to fight a war against terrorists who are claiming that we are complicit in the human rights violations perpetrated against the Palestinian people, is it really wise to announce a policy of disregarding war crimes which have been committed against Palestinians and only Palestinians?

The suggested changes make no sense: either ethically or politically.

The day that a suspected war criminal cannot be apprehended in this country will be the day that every single citizen of the UK will have to hang their head in shame.