Tzipi Livni orchestrated massacre in Gaza in 2008
Senior officials in Israel have confirmed that a British court issued an arrest warrant against Israeli opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni for her role in orchestrating Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip in 2008. Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and Livni were the top decision-makers who charted the course of the war. 1,400 Gazans died in the assault, many of them civilians, including hundreds of women and children.
The request for the warrant was submitted by a pro-Palestinian organization.
Arab-language media reported that Livni cancelled her participation in a function in London after a warrant for her arrest was issued over Livni’s part in Israel’s Gaza offensive. Israel's ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, at first claimed that officials in the British Ministry of Justice were unaware of any criminal complaint against Livni. However, Israeli officials later revealed that a warrant had indeed been issued.
According to the Al-Quds Al-Arabi news organization, Scotland Yard told organizers of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) conference in London that the former Israeli foreign minister cancelled her address to the assembly because of threats of legal action against her that had been initiated by pro-Palestinian groups. Al-Quds Al-Arabi also said a group of about 100 protesters rallied outside the Hendon Hall Hotel as delegates arrived at the JNF meeting.
Livni's office insisted that her appearance at the London event had been cancelled two weeks earlier due to ‘a scheduling conflict’. Her office also stated that the opposition leader was ‘proud of all the decisions she made as foreign minister during the Gaza war’.
Two months ago a United Kingdom court deferred until further notice an appeal by local pro-Palestinian groups to issue an arrest warrant against Ehud Barak, who was visiting the country at the time.
Adapted from "Foreign Ministry outraged over U.K. arrest warrant against Livni",
by Barak Ravid, published by the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Dec. 14, 2009.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1134978.html
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