Spain – Spanish Judge Issues Arrest Warrants For Benjamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Liberman, Others

    13

     Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) arrives to the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, Israel, 15 November 2015. EPASpain – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seven other former and current government officials may be at risk of arrest over the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla raid if they step foot on Spanish soil after a judge, late last week, drew up warrants.

    Join our WhatsApp group

    Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email


    Others who might face arrest include former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman; current and former defense ministers Moshe Ya’alon and Ehud Barak, respectively; former interior minister Eli Yishai; former intelligence minister Dan Meridor; and minster-without-portfolio Bennie Begin. Together with Netanyahu, they make up the so-called Forum of Seven, an ad hoc committee of ministers that made key decisions on security issues at the time. Former head of the Navy Eliezer Marom, the top IDF commander running the operation at the time, also could face arrest.

    “We consider it [the judge’s order] to be a provocation. We are working with the Spanish authorities to get it canceled. We hope it will be over soon,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said Saturday night.

    The Prime Minister’s Office and the Justice Ministry had not responded by press time Sunday.

    In the 2010 incident, a group of human rights activists and a smaller group of IHH activists (which the quasi-government Turkel Commission Report identified as affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood) boarded several ships to try to break an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel commandeered and stopped most of the ships without incident, but when Israel Navy commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara they were attacked by IHH activists who wounded some commandos.

    The incident left 10 dead on the IHH side.

    Spain is just the latest member of the international community to accuse Israel of war crimes and pursue Israeli officials over the affair.

    Local proceedings in Turkey went to full trial but stalled after Netanyahu made a partial apology, while several efforts to arrest Israeli officials in England stalled after the government there amended the law to make it more difficult for individual judges to issue arrest warrants without state approval.

    At the International Criminal Court, the Mavi Marmara incident has provoked intense controversy with ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda performing an initial investigation before deciding to close the case.

    The Comoros Islands, which filed the complaint, appealed to the Pretrial Chamber, which voted on a 2-1 split for Bensouda to reconsider her position, a decision upheld on a 3-2 split vote by the ICC Appeals Chamber.

    Still many expect Bensouda to close the case again on different grounds.

    Israel was cleared by the quasi Israeli-government sponsored Turkel Commission and the UN-sponsored Palmer Report, which validated some of Israel’s narrative of fighting in self-defense or said there was insufficient evidence to pursue Israel for war crimes, even as the Palmer Report said some of the IDF’s force was excessive.

    This is not Spain’s first attempt to bring war crimes allegations against Israeli officials.

    After the IDF’s 2002 bombing of Hamas mastermind Salah Shehadeh, the full range of Spanish courts got involved in reviewing the deaths of 15 civilians and the injuring of 150 that resulted from the attack.

    But, in 2009, Spain’s top judicial court, in one of the flagship lawfare cases against Israel, essentially approved Israel’s High Court and related investigative decisions that the actions, all in order to kill Shehadeh, had not been disproportionate under the circumstances.

    While many critics have slammed Israel’s legal and judicial apparatus as unwilling to criminalize IDF conduct, the Spanish court said the apparatus satisfied “the requirements issuing from the application of the right to effective due process by an independent and impartial judicial system.”

    It was unclear whether the latest case was an individual judge acting on his own with little backing, or whether it has a serious path forward and chance of success with the warrant being respected by Spanish law enforcement and INTERPOL or stalling as have been similar arrest warrants from countries that are friendly or neutral toward Israel.‎


    Listen to the VINnews podcast on:

    iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Podbean | Amazon

    Follow VINnews for Breaking News Updates


    Connect with VINnews

    Join our WhatsApp group


    13 Comments
    Most Voted
    Newest Oldest
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Myrak
    Myrak
    8 years ago

    I suppose Mr Spanish Judge feels safer in Madrid than he might in Paris.

    8 years ago

    Eisav sonei l”Yaakov. So many of us don’t want to believe or accept this.
    But no matter how forgiving and “good” we are, we can’t change a spiritual law in the universe. They hate us and we can never win no matter what we do. So let’s concentrate on loving one another instead of appeasing them.

    sane
    sane
    8 years ago

    And if they dtep foot in spain, they will become victims of the auto de fe. Ah, Spain has not changed

    REALIST
    REALIST
    8 years ago

    I guess Spain is the next stop for ISIS!

    berylyoseph
    berylyoseph
    8 years ago

    He should issue an arrest warrant against French President Hollande for using a disproportionate force against ISIS and vowing to annahilate them, He should issue a warrant against other European leaders, that support Hollande, including his own Spanish Prime Minister,

    8 years ago

    So it will be another auto de fa (however you spell it)

    8 years ago

    What about a warrant for those that voted them in? Those damn descendants of the Ferdinand & Isibella era will just never change.

    wsbrgh
    wsbrgh
    8 years ago

    BS’D. 48 hrs after the EU ordered Nuremberg style labeling of Israel goods the Paris event which was executed from BELGIUM, capital the EU happened. Spain and Sweden GET READY.

    yankee96
    yankee96
    8 years ago

    NO JEW SHOULD EVER BUY ANYTHING MADE IN SPAIN AND NEVER STEP ONTO SPANISH LAND.

    THE JEWISH /ISRAELI TOURS THAT GO THERE SHOULD STOP IMMEDIATELY AND A BOYCOTT OF SPAIN IS LONG OVERDUE,SINCE 1492 !!!

    8 years ago

    It’s clear that Spain is still in appeasement mode when it comes to the Muslims….they hope,their actions will make the Muslims not select them as a target for their terror.