Palestinian government asks Britain not to amend war criminals law

Palestinian government asks Britain not to amend war criminals law

 The Palestinian government in Gaza has asked the British government to revoke an earlier decision to amend the legislation on prosecuting war criminals.

The justice ministry said in a statement on Sunday that such an amendment would constitute a big insult to the British judiciary’s reputation, independence, and integrity.

It charged that the step was meant to please Israel, noting that the British foreign secretary William Hague had said that the law would be amended, which meant treating criminals as official guests with diplomatic immunity and sparing them punishment.

Such a serious trend would pose as a reward for the Israeli occupation forces and leaders who committed and ordered the crimes, the ministry said, adding that the trial of Israeli war criminals was an ethical responsibility on all those keen on human rights and dignity.

"There is no justification whatsoever for those who want to change the law for the sake of cheap political ends while ignoring the innocent lives that were killed in cold blood," the ministry underlined.

The national and international laws would remain impotent and worthless as long as they did not prosecute the Israeli war criminals regardless of political prices, the ministry elaborated.

It asked the British government, which shoulders a big moral responsibility for the Palestinian people’s tragedies to retain politics aloof from the judiciary so as not to tarnish its reputation.

The ministry also asked all judicial authorities in the European countries and the free world not to take the British step as a model to follow and to embark on serious steps to put Israeli war criminals on trial.