RAMALLAH, West Bank, 7 December 2007 — In a first precedent with a member of Israeli Cabinet, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter canceled a trip to Britain after the Israeli Foreign Ministry recommendation that he would be arrested due to his involvement in the decision to assassinate the head of Hamas’ military wing Ezzeddine Al-Qassam Brigades in July 2002.
When he was head of Shin Bet (Israeli internal intelligence agency), Dichter gave the green light for the aerial attack that left 15 people dead in the bombing of Salah Shehadeh’s house in Gaza Strip, among them his wife and three children. Dichter was already charged in a civil suit in the United States in 2005 for his part in the decision to assassinate Shehadeh.
The daily Haaretz reported that Dichter was invited to take part in a conference by a British research institute on “the day after” Annapolis. He was supposed to give an address on the diplomatic process.
Dichter contacted the Foreign Ministry and sought an opinion on the matter, among other reasons because of previous cases in which complaints were filed in Britain and arrest warrants were issued on suspicion of war crimes by senior Israeli Army officers who served during the second intifada, started in September 2000.
The Foreign Ministry wrote to Dichter that it did not recommend he visit Britain because of a high probability that an extreme leftist organization there would file a complaint, which might lead to an arrest warrant.
The ministry also wrote that because Dichter was not an official guest of the British government, he did not have immunity from arrest.
Dichter’s bureau told the daily Haaretz that the minister does not intend to go to Britain on any type of official or unofficial visit until the matter of the arrest warrant is resolved. According to British law, a private individual can file a complaint against another person for offenses such as war crimes. According to the law, such a complaint might lead to the court issuing an arrest warrant, or a summons to criminal investigation or clarification of the complaint by the police, or even the opening of criminal proceedings.
However, it is the first time an Israeli minister to face this problem, which has mainly affected senior officers in the Israel forces. Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, formerly chief of staff, encountered a similar problem when he traveled to Britain in 2002 before becoming defense minister.
Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources on Wednesday said that 13 “wanted militants” surrendered voluntarily to the Palestinian Military Intelligence Service in West Bank city of Nablus in accordance with the amnesty deal reached between Israeli and the Palestinian Authority last July.
The sources added that the militants are members of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades, and Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Israel agreed to stop chasing dozens of wanted Fatah gunmen in the West Bank if they proved that they were ready to stop all military activity against the Jewish state in the frame of an agreement aimed at bolstering Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
