LONDON: The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians has launched a legal bid to initiate a private prosecution against British citizens who fought for Israel.
The human rights group plans to argue in court that the Britons joined a foreign army engaged in a conflict with Palestine, a state with which the UK was not at war.
An application for a summons against one named individual was submitted to a magistrates' court on Monday, The Guardian reported on Thursday. The newspaper described the attempt to mount a private prosecution of this kind as “highly unusual.”
The ICJP argues that individuals who fought for Israeli forces in Palestine violated Section 4 of the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, which prohibits a person from accepting or agreeing to military service for foreign nations at war with a state that is at peace with the UK.
Palestine, which the British government officially recognized as a state in September, has never engaged in any act of war against the UK. The region was a British colony for nearly 30 years until 1948.
Though the legal papers only identify one individual for attempted prosecution, the ICJP reportedly has evidence on more than 10 British citizens. In the interests of securing a successful prosecution, and to avoid prejudicing the case, the organization has not publicly identified the individual named in the summons.
The ICJP accuses the Israeli army of engaging in a war that not only targets Hamas militants in Gaza, but all Palestinians and the State of Palestine itself. The repeated military operations and acts of aggression also extend to Palestinians and civilian infrastructure in the West Bank, demonstrating that Israel has been at war with all of Palestine, it argues.
The organization will need show that the defendant is a British citizen who accepted a commission in the Israeli armed forces, that Israel was at war with Palestine, and that Palestine is a foreign state that was not involved in a conflict with the UK.
Israeli law does not require anyone outside its own territory, including Israelis who are British subjects, to serve in its military. Therefore, any British nationals who fought with Israeli forces would have done so voluntarily.
