Arresting Politicians – British Hypocrisy. The media is full of stories concerning Tzipi Livni and a potential arrest warrant issued against her in the British courts.
The whole incident of a potential arrest warrant issued against former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, has sickened me and caused me to feel embarrassed to be British, yet again. (Last time it was Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak)
This is an excellent cross post from the Modernity Blog (Hat-Tip CiFWatch)
Arresting Politicians – British Hypocrisy.
The media is full of stories concerning Tzipi Livni and a potential arrest warrant issued against her in the British courts.
That is, I think, a little bit unusual?
I can’t remember of any other nationality, or nation, being subject to these ad hoc arrest warrants, from British courts.
Even when General Pinochet, the murdering ex-dictator of Chile, was in Britain, he was only held under house arrest on a Spanish warrant, not a British one.
Further if we think of the variety and intensity of dictators, potentates and other assorted politicians who have graced Britain with their presence in the past 30 years it is hard to remember which of them were subject to warrants issued by British courts, or even the threat of arrest.
Was Vladimir Putin indicted for Russian barbarism in Chechnya ? Certainly not.
Was Robert Mugabe chastised for brutalising, starving and murdering Zimbabweans? No, not really.
Were King Fahd or his successor, King Abdullah II ever prosecuted for having the worst human rights record in the Middle East? Not at all.
You could go through the list of state visits from 1955 onwards and find any number of rogues, villains and the culpable, but what is surprising is that no one in Britain has seen fit to even **attempt** to acquire a warrant or two in the British courts, except when it comes to Israelis.
Moreover there are people in Britain who consider that Tony Blair is a war criminal for his advocacy of the invasion of Iraq and the subsequent bloodshed which ensued.
But as far as I know, not one single Brit has taken the trouble to apply for warrant arresting Tony Blair, even though some of them consider him a war criminal, which seems to suggest that their indignation is rather selective.
I can only suppose that if Tony Blair were an Israeli that there would be a stampede to the Law Courts, pleading for an arrest warrant at great haste.
Yet none of the political windbags that attack Blair would even dare to venture near the Law Courts where he is concerned, or they would have long since done it.
My bet is none of this top twenty worst human rights offenders have anything to fear in visiting Britain, Amnesty reports:
Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Egypt, North Korea, Sudan, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Pakistan, China, Libya, Burma, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Chad and Congo (Republic).
However, should their leaders decide to visit Britain then, no matter how much blood is dripping from their fingers, they will probably receive a warm welcome in Blighty, and be patted on the back in true imperial fashion.
As long as they are not Israelis.
Countries may come and go, but there is one constant in history, good old British hypocrisy.
Tags: Law Moral Ethical, News
January 13th, 2010 at 11:57 am
The arrest warrant against Livni was brought by Palestinians, who have the right to make a claim against her, as sanctioned by international law, by the Goldstone Report.
International law is ratified as part of national laws within the UK, so therefore Livni and those who were alongside her, have already been found guilty of war crimes by the UN.
The UK is responsible to the UN to respect international laws, just as Israel also should be bound by international laws, as should any other country.
Israel were also responsible for war crimes against the civilian population of Lebanon, when the IDF performed a coordinated air strike across the entire length of the country, including major civilian targets, decimating the civilian infrastructure of the country, and causing the worst environmental disaster the Mediterranean has ever seen by causing massive oil spills at the same time.
You seem to forget that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan was justified (illegally) by the US, and the UK – based on war crimes that the Kurdish people had been subject to, by Sadam Hussein.
The invasion instead, did not perform the basic statements that the US and UK made in the justification of the invasion. The mass population of Iraq instead have been subject to a worse genocide than they were before. That is also a war crime. It is up to the people of Iraq to take those responsible from the US and UK to trial for their crimes.
The Iraqi government is now in fact taking Blackwater a private mercenary company that worked for the US govt to court, both in the US and in the UK.