Israel adviser switches to top FO job in Britain

by **antiaristo** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:08 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>Israel adviser switches to top FO job · QC told Sharon to shun UN inquiry into Jenin battle · Palestine support group will protest to Straw Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor Tuesday March 7, 2006 The Guardian The British Foreign Office has appointed a controversial Israeli government adviser to one of its most sensitive posts as head of the legal department. Advice from Daniel Bethlehem QC in 2002 to the then Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, led Israel to block a UN inquiry into the battle of Jenin. The Israeli refusal to cooperate was widely condemned at the time by various human rights organisations. Mr Bethlehem, who was Israel's external legal adviser, also took the lead for the Israeli government at the International court of justice in The Hague in 2004 to defend the barrier being built along the West Bank. Israel lost the case. The Foreign Office said: "Our view is Mr Bethlehem has had a distinguished career in international law, including acting on behalf of the UK government in a number of international proceedings. He has also acted for or against a number of other states. His experience in this area equips him strongly for this job." The legal team 45-year-old Mr Bethlehem will head challenged the legitimacy of pre-emptive action in the run-up to the Iraq war, and the deputy head of the team, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, resigned just before the invasion. He will have to advise Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, on a host of issues ranging from Guantánamo Bay to the legality of any pre-emptive strike against Iran. Betty Hunter, spokeswoman for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said yesterday the group would write to Mr Straw. "We are appalled that the Foreign Office is employing someone who has a very distinct bias." The job was advertised last October. On his appointment, the Foreign Office published a lengthy CV listing 27 international disputes in which he has been involved but omitting Jenin. Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, ordered an inquiry into Jenin after the Palestinians claimed there had been human rights abuses on a grand scale. The Israeli government insisted that the heavy casualties - on both sides - had been the result of the ferocity of the Palestinian defence of the town. Mr Sharon initially agreed to cooperate with the UN inquiry. But days later the Israeli government changed its mind after advice from Mr Bethlehem. Mr Bethlehem, a specialist in international law at Cambridge University, warned in a memo for the Israeli government that if the inquiry's findings "uphold the allegations against Israel - even on a poor reasoning - this will fundamentally alter the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian leadership and may make it impossible for Israel to resist calls for an international force, the immediate establishment of a Palestinian state and the prosecution of individuals said to have committed the alleged acts." In the memo, a copy of which was leaked to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, Mr Bethlehem said the seriousness of the inquiry should not be minimised and that "for all practical purposes, Israel is faced with a war crimes investigation". The question mark over his involvement in Jenin was raised with the Guardian by a British lawyer, who requested anonymity. Another lawyer, Philippe Sands QC, who knows Mr Bethlehem well, said: "He is a first-class international lawyer and an individual of impeccable integrity. Some may say he has a conservative disposition but he is independent and very much his own man." A pointer to Mr Bethlehem's view on attacking Iran can be found in his evidence last year to the Commons foreign affairs committee. Although an Israeli pre-emptive strike on an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981 was judged to be illegal, a good case could have been made for it both then and now, he said. Backstory Israel launched a huge offensive into the West Bank in spring 2002 after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. The attack on Jenin began on April 3 and there were heavy casualties on both sides. The Palestinians claimed there had been widescale human rights abuses, denied by Israel. The UN launched an inquiry and Israel initially agreed to cooperate. After a few days, Israel made a surprise, and at the time mysterious, turnaround, saying it had decided to withdraw its cooperation. The inquiry team interviewed Palestinians but was denied access to Israelis. The inquiry, in its final report, concluded there had been no massacre by Israel.<hr></blockquote> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1725156,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/israel...56,00.html</a>

by **havanagilla** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:38 am

Anti, I think it might be related to the arrest warrants against Israeli officers. -- I wonder if you read the news yesterday about Prince Phillip telling how the royal family of the UK was fond of Hitler and his ideology, and the new photographs showing the family with nazi uniforms around. I was sure you are going to jump on that. it was in the hebrew edition of haaretz yesterday. Something about the american wife of Edward being overtly Nazi sympathizer etc. etc.

by **antiaristo** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:01 am

havanavilla, You know me too well. <a href="http://p216.ezboard.com/frigorousintuitionfrm10.showMessage?topicID=3331.topic">p216.ezboard.com/frigorou...3331.topic</a> Apparently the Nazi-haters on this board were not too agitated at this evidence of the Windsors making nice to Uncle Adolph. The very year Elizabeth Bowes Lyons became queen! Wallace Simpson was a very useful scapegoat. After all, the vigilantes have got REAL Nazis to chase. Websites they don't approve.

by **havanagilla** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:31 am

ooops, i missed that thread... while at it, i wonder what is YOUR take on the arrest warrants in England. All I know is that Yesh Gvul is providing the Israeli complaints and there is another lawyer, who is Brittish but is in fact a son of a former israeli, who is pressing for the arrests. But I also know that Oxfam and other such like Brittish orgs are funding this activity. The Israseli gov met with Blair and your FO on this issue almost ordering them to find a solution, namely, change the law somehow (recent suggestion was to require, under the law, that each such warrant shall require the consent of the attorney general, who can be more selective and consider foreign relations as well). This is a BIG issue here and I wonder what the Brittish politics behind it. I am past the age of believing any "ethical or moral" considerations, so what's the deal ? is it a little skirmish bn the UK and US coalition members ? power game ? Or, is it just a legal loophole that left wing Israelis/Palestinians are using cleverly and the UK gov is REALLY helpless about it because of constitutional constraints ? for instance canada is using similar proceedings to take the suspects as hostages (lawfully, sort of) in order to extort ransom, political ransom. So, if someone were charged in Canada it would be in order to nego with Israel over some commercial contract/bid or something similar. Namely, the selectoin of the "war criminals" is made not according to guilt or rank/responsibility but on their assessed 'value' in the market of extortions and deals (you gimme money I spare you embarassment). <a href="http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlbus/chambus/house/debates/078_2003-03-26/han078_1950-E.htm">www.parl.gc.ca/37/2/parlb...1950-E.htm</a> <blockquote>Quote:<hr> Mrs. Marlene Jennings: No, I do not, Madam Speaker, and I find it offensive that a member of the House would intimate that our government would act under pressure or that an independent intelligence service agency of our government would act under pressure from another government to list an entity based on no evidence whatsoever; I think that is shameful<hr></blockquote>. But in the UK case its a bit different, cause there is much more involvement (and maybe initiative) actually coming from WITHIN Israel. And people here also claim that the evacuees from Gaza have joined hands with the radical left, to revenge the generals who disengaged them out of their settlements. In any event, let's see how long the Common Law will withstand the blitz from the Israeli/US opponents. I'll give it 6 months before the law is somehow changed. on edit - israeli backtalks on the Bethlehem appointment are very negative, one i liked is "so why not appoint Pollard as secretary of state in the USA now ?" Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=havanagilla>havanagilla</A> at: 3/7/06 8:12 am

by **antiaristo** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:53 pm

havanagilla, I'm not logging in, so I can't edit. Sorry for the typo. I think it is part of a much larger strategy - that of removing the common people from direct contact with the legal process and the law. They are concerned about common law citizens arrests and they are trying to stop them. Just like they are trying to restrict the scope and role of the jury as arbiter of fact in the trial process. It's a long game. We used to have grand juries, indeed it is from English law that the United States inherits this feature. The last English grand jury was held in 1933. Mary of Teck got rid of them, and we now have the Crown Prosecution Service. Headed not so long ago by Dame Barbara Mills! A personal note. You've read that I got into the European Court of Human Rights in October 2003 (ref 24316/03). That was because it was`possible to gain access simply by writing in direct. Beautiful, simple justice at the service of the citizens of Europe. A few months after my case was "thrown out" they changed the rules. You can now no longer go direct, but must be "sponsored" by some bureaucratic body. For that one decision alone the entire European superstate deserves to be brought crashing to the ground. It is to protect the very Nazis that went to pay homage to Hitler in the 1930s. The very Nazis that run Britain. The Windsor Nazis. Whatever slim says, I look forward to the lot of them, the Garter Knights, rotting in hell along with Adolph and Rudolph and Josef and the rest of their soul(less)mates.

by **OnoI812** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 5:35 pm

Anti- I saw it yesterday and took the liberty of emailing it to some friends and other boards...thanks for posting. This board does seem to be moving faster... cheers

Israel adviser switches to top FO job in Britain

Israel adviser switches to top FO job in Britain

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