Israel: On Ground Updates - December 15, 2009

Israel: On Ground Updates
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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* Haaretz.com brings us the following report and it starts off like this... Britain pledged Tuesday to reform a peculiar legal power that lets Judges order the arrest of visiting politicians and generals - a threat currently focused on Israeli visitors that, one day, might be invoked against Barack Obama or Vladimir Putin... Lawyers working with Palestinian activists in recent years have sought the arrest of senior Israeli civilian and military figures under terms of universal jurisdiction. This ill-defined legal concept empowers judges to issue arrest warrants for visiting officials accused of war crimes in a foreign conflict... Their latest target is Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister and current opposition leader, who staunchly defends Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel's government confirmed Tuesday that she canceled a planned London trip this month after her office received news of a secretly issued arrest warrant awaiting her arrival...
Read the rest at link below...
U.K. vows to end arrest threats to top Israeli officials
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* YNetNews.com has this take... Earlier Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband expressed his dismay over a London court's decision to issue an arrest warrant against Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni, but a senior Foreign Ministry source told Ynet that the British minister has so far faltered on his promise to rectify the legal loophole which allows such action to be taken...
Read the full report at link below...
Jerusalem demands London plug legislative loophole
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* BBC.co.uk reports it this way... The government is "urgently" looking into reforming the law after a UK court issued an arrest warrant for former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni... [HELL -- You THINK!!!] The warrant was granted by a London court at the request of Palestinian plaintiffs, provoking Israeli anger... It was revoked on Monday when it was found Ms Livni was not visiting the UK... Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Israel was a "close friend" of the UK's and stressed he was keen to "avoid this sort of situation arising again"...
Read the full report at link below...
UK ponders law change after Tzipi Livni arrest warrant

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Confusion Over Livni UK Warrant


About this news video: A court in the UK has issued - and then cancelled - an arrest warrant against Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni... According to the Guardian newspaper, the warrant was issued at the request of lawyers representing pro-Palestinian activists and sought Livni's arrest on suspicion of war crimes related to last year's War on Gaza... Al Jazeera's Lauren Patterson reports...
This video posted on YouTube by AlJazeeraEnglish
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