Europe-funded Ramallah group boasts of obtaining arrest warrant for Livni
AMSTERDAM (JTA) – An organization that allocates European funding to Palestinian human-rights groups has boasted of initiating war-crimes charges in Britain against former foreign minister Tzipi Livni.
The Ramallah-based Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat – a platform created by the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland – noted in its 2016 annual report that the legal troubles its “partners” gave Livni were an example of how it is “influencing duty bearers and building accountability.”
“In response to joint work between partners and pressure from international bodies, a British judge issued an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni,” read the report that was compiled in August and published last month. It continued: “Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Unit transmitted a letter to the Israeli Embassy in London inviting Tzipi Livni to a police interview under caution in relation to her role” in the 2014 Operation Cast Lead operation against Hamas in Gaza.
In the Netherlands, prosecutors have dismissed warcrimes complaints against Israeli politicians as unfounded or beyond the jurisdiction of the Dutch judiciary.
In 2011, following repeated attempts to prosecute Israelis, including Livni, Britain’s Parliament passed an amendment saying the director of public prosecutions must agree to issue an arrest warrant in universal jurisdiction cases in which the alleged crimes were committed outside of Britain. This means political considerations will also be taken into account for such allegations.
During a trip to the United Kingdom for a women’s conference in 2016, Livni attended meetings with British Foreign Office diplomats that were organized by Israel so her visit would be under the cover of diplomatic immunity.
She declined to appear before Scotland Yard to answer the voluntary summons.
Israel has dismissed allegations that it committed war crimes in Gaza.
Shaun Sacks, a researcher for NGO Monitor, an Israel-based nongovernmental organization, accused the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat of “abusing public funds to perpetuate conflict.”