[WCUSP] SFGate: Israel Said to Fear War Crimes Charges

[Katharina Harlow]

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Monday, September 4, 2006 (AP)
Israel Said to Fear War Crimes Charges
By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer


   (09-04) 11:51 PDT JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) --

   Three weeks after a cease-fire ended Israel's monthlong war against
Hezbollah guerrillas, Israel is increasingly concerned that government
officials and army officers traveling abroad could face war crimes
charges, a Foreign Ministry official said Monday.

   A special legal team is preparing to provide protection for officers and
officials involved in the 34-day conflict in Lebanon, the official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
discuss the matter with the media.

   More than 850 Lebanese were killed during the conflict, most of them
civilians. The human rights group Amnesty International has accused Israel
of war crimes, including indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on
civilian targets.

   Israel has said it acted legally and accused Hezbollah of hiding among
civilians in Lebanon and deliberately targeting Israeli civilians in
rocket attacks. The fighting left 159 Israelis dead, including 39
civilians hit by Hezbollah rockets in Israel's northern cities. The
Amnesty report also criticized Hezbollah's attacks on civilians.

   The Foreign Ministry official said the legal-defense team, which includes
representatives from the Justice and Defense ministries, is maintained by
the government to help officials facing the possibility of war crimes
charges abroad. It was first assembled to deal with charges related to
Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza.

   He would not comment on a report in the Haaretz daily that the ministry
has urged top officials against making inflammatory statements that might
be used against them in legal proceedings.

   Israeli Tourism Minister Yitzhak Herzog said he isn't concerned about
prosecution of Israeli leaders, but he criticized some officials for
excessively belligerent statements during the war that could expose them
to legal action abroad.

   "Today we have to understand that wars, political situations and military
situations include many components, and that one of the components that
have to be weighed is international law," Herzog told Army Radio.

   Israeli fears of prosecution abroad are based on experience. A retired
general arriving in London last year who had commanded Israeli forces in
Gaza was tipped off by an Israeli diplomat that he was about to be
arrested by British authorities over a 2002 air strike that killed a Hamas
leader and 14 others, nine of them children. Doron Almog remained on the
plane and returned to Israel.

   In 2001, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faced a lawsuit in Belgium over
his alleged role in a 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps
in Beirut. Several former Israeli army chiefs of staff also have been
targeted. None of the cases have succeeded.

   Daniel Machover, a British attorney involved in attempts to prosecute
Israeli officers including Almog, said he knew of "at least two" teams
compiling evidence in Lebanon for use in future legal cases. He said it
was "too early" to disclose more details. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 AP