Can UK parliament ignore 100,000 calls for Netanyahu’s arrest?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduces his UK counterpart David Cameron in the Knesset, 12 March 2014. More than 100,000 UK residents are calling for Netanyahu’s arrest during a planned visit to London this month.

10 Downing Street

The UK parliament may debate whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested for war crimes.

This is because more than 100,000 UK citizens and residents have signed an official petition calling for the Israeli leader to be arrested when he visits London.

As of early Sunday, there were more than 101,000 signatures on the petition at the parliament’s website.

Under official procedure, a petition that gains 10,000 signatures receives a government response.

As The Electronic Intifada reported, the UK government’s answer last month contained a number of false and contradictory statements, effectively justifying Israeli war crimes.

Several Israeli officials have narrowly escaped arrest in the UK in recent years, often with official complicity.

According to the rules, “Petitions which reach 100,000 signatures are almost always debated” in the House of Commons.

But there is no guarantee this will happen as the petitions committee in the parliament can choose not to have a debate “if the issue has already been debated recently or there’s a debate scheduled for the near future.”

There are currently four other petitions awaiting debates, including one with more than 415,000 signatures calling on the UK to offer asylum and support to more refugees.

Since Netanyahu’s official visit to the UK is scheduled for this month, it is unlikely any debate would take place before he arrives in London.

But the outpouring of support for bringing Netanyahu to justice will clearly be an embarrassment to him and his host, UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

Tags

Comments

picture

As of today, 101,255 people have signed the petition to get Netanyahu arrested when he arrives in London. Even though the petition asks for arrest of Netanyahu for committing War Crimes in Gaza, the aim of the petition, of course, is not to arrest Netanyahu, but merely to draw attention to the plight of the Palestinians suffering under Israel’s brutal military occupation, and to discuss in the UK Parliament why Cameron’s government stands by Israel and supports all of Israel’s actions against the Palestinians, no matter how atrocious. I predict that by the time the deadline arrives on February 7, 2016, more than 300,000 Britons would have signed the petition.
There is so much pent up anger against Netanyahu !

The petitioner, Damian Moran, knew, of course, as almost the entire world now knows, that Netanyahu has diplomatic immunity from arrest; their aim, when they signed the petition, however, was only to draw attention to the injustice Palestinians are subjected to daily, in apartheid Israel. Without a doubt the petitioners have accomplished their objective and succeeded admirably.

On the day Netanyahu arrives in London, people are planning to hold a rally in protest over his visit. Obviously, Netanyahu is not very welcome there. I remember the time when a crowd estimated to be 500,000 antiwar people gathered on the streets of London to protest Britain’s role in the Iraq War. Londoners are anticipating such a large crowd again. to protest Netanyahu’s visit to London. I think they intend to send a clear message to Netanyahu and to Israel that this war criminal is not welcome in London.
Yesh Prabhu, Bushkill, Pennsylvania

picture

yes his political immunity will protect him while in UK and the ICC isn't after him but what's funny is Omar Al bashir of Sudan would be arrested and political immunity would go out of the windows because ICC wants him but apparently ICC not interested Netanyahu #Doublestandards.

picture

whenever we invite a leader to this country who has committed war crimes, they will never come, if they will be arrested. PM should be able to talk to them. I think PM should invite Asam, and say" you don't want all your people to emigrate because of your bombing and Isis actions, Let us fight ISIS together, and then have an election where both sides can be in the government.and make peace.

If you arrest him, how long will it be before he is brought to justice, years>?

picture

Did you mean Assad?/ because we are also complicit in the murder of Syrians as we support Saudi Arabia who hates Assad
Saudi's wahhabism has greatly influenced ISIS and the Taliban's ideology
Saudi Arabia is a dear ally of ours; they are currently bombing Yemen to smithereens
Neither have our craven governments called for negotiations with Assad, who obviously has to still be part of the picture, distasteful as that is, at least as part of an interim government
The alternative right now is ISIS - there is nothing else left in the sense of secular opposition in Syria. Thanks ot Turkey, Qatar and Saudi and the CIA, ISI is awash with arms and money

picture

It is remarkable how governments, such as Britain and the US, simply ignore the war crimes of Israel under the leadership of Netanyahu. That governments are not responsive to the protests of the people on issues which delineate and determine the human decency of those governments is atrocious. I hope to see 500,000 people in the streets of London in protest against the reception of Netanyahu into England by the British government. Our mothers and grandmothers always told us that we were known by the company we keep. Too bad the leaders of Britain and the US did not have mothers and grandmothers who taught them that.

picture

The more disreputable and/or criminal, the better. He used to hang out with Rebekah Brooks in his free time.

I fear he is unreformable (due to a total lack of those qualities that used to be so cherished by the British: character and backbone). But the success of this petition will indeed cause him some discomfort.

picture

Of course the U.K & the U.S.A support Israel`s Apartheid & Ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian Peoples,because their Histories are the same,did not the First Nations of the U.S.A.,ie; The Indian Nations get the same treatment,by the incoming European Immigrants who illegaly settled their(the Indians) land,only to push them into American GAZA STRIPS ie;Reservations,where they remain today with no prospects.
The U.K`s involvement in Colonialisation around the globe,together with their involvement in the SLAVE TRADE,is well documented,even recently the U.K. deported the Indigenous peoples of DIEGO GARCIA with no regard for their Rights,with no Compensation,no right of Appeal,to a squalid existance in South American slums where many have succumbed to debilitating illnesses,with no medicare, no representation.even though they are BRITISH PASSPORT holders!.To make way for an American Military base.of course the U.K.`s partner in crime uncle sam,takes precedence even over the rights of it`s own (U.K.)citizens,finally let`s not forget that it was the U.K. & the U.S.A.who engineered the introduction of the ZIONIST THUGS into PALESTINE & with their (U S A`s)connivance,encouraged the subsequent Nakbah,the systematic CLEANSING of the peoples of PALESTINE.

picture

We can arrange a petition to get David Cameron charged with TREASON AND CORRUPTION.

picture

What all Peoples should be petitioning is not the War Criminal's themselves but the Political exemption to those who under the "Color of State" have diplomatic immunity to those Crimes.

So... Let's CHANGE that. Petition to REMOVE all diplomatic immunity from ALL Nations.

See how fast those who could be prosecuted would be. After ALL if say IRAN was allegedly doing these crimes how fast they'd call for the arrest of those Perp's.

Please wake up.
Under Nuremberg LAW those who "KNEW" and did nothing were still convicted as "Aiding and Abetting" and were HANGED!

picture

A very special thanks to Ali Abuminah for this excellent reporting.

Ditto to the courageous Brits who have the courage to speak out.

-------------------

In my view it is not only Benyamin Netanyahu but Zionism which is
to blame. To personalize this on Netanyahu is a basic error.
Arthur James Balfour and other Brits played a central roles in
the encouragement of the essentially "Volkish" belief in "purity
of blood" and exclusivity (See George L Mosse, THE CRISIS IN
GERMAN IDEOLOGY and other sources.) This role was
taken over by the US. There was never any consideration
of any indigenous right to be heard or to oppose the invasion
of a white race, superior by definition(?) and "entitled" by their
laws to "inheritance?" that divinity assured them could never
be challenged.

---Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA

picture

We let a mass murderer travel freely yet strip Snowden of his passport. Welcome to the twilight zone.

picture

One can and should end Zionism, most definitely. However it has agents and actors, such as Benny, that made and make it possible.

Those miscreant agents and actors must be held accountable, lest miscreants and "reprobates" everywhere are emboldened.

For that reason the trials will not stop with Benny.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.