Posted on 01/29/2009 10:58:01 AM PST by ScaniaBoy
A decision by a Spanish judge on Thursday to investigate seven current and former Israeli officials over a 2002 airstrike which killed a senior Hamas leader has sparked a firestorm in the political and defense establishments in Israel.
"The decision of the Spanish court is delusional, ridiculous, and more than that, outrageous," National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer - who himself is one of those targeted by the probe for his role as defense minister at the time- said during an interview with Channel 2. "They are using the courts of the free world in order to fight those who fight terror."
"I am not sorry on the decision that I made when I was defense minister to assassinate him," he continued. "Shaahaha was an arch-murderer."
"If we didn't do this, hundreds others would've died," Ben-Eliezer said.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Opposition leader and Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu also slammed the investigation.
"Someone who calls the assassination of a terrorist a 'crime against humanity' lives in an upside-down world," Barak said. "All of the senior defense officials, from the past and the present, acted correctly in the name of the State of Israel and out of a commitment to defend Israeli citizens."
Barak said that the Spanish decision was particularly disturbing following recent events in the Gaza Strip during which Hamas's "true face" was revealed. Barak said he would take all necessary action to defend the defense officials from the charges and to have them annulled.
"It's absurd; Israel is fighting against war criminals and they are charging us with crimes?" Netanyahu told Army Radio.
"There is nothing more ridiculous and absurd than them accusing us, a democracy legitimately protecting itself against terrorists and war criminals, of these crimes; it is absurd and makes a mockery out of international law," Netanyahu said.
Spanish Judge Fernando Andreu said he saw a possible crime against humanity in Israel's attack targeting Salah Shehadeh with a one-ton bomb dropped from an F-16 warplane in densely populated Gaza City.
The judge is acting under a doctrine that allows prosecution in Spain of crimes against humanity or crimes such as terrorism or genocide, even if they are alleged to have been committed in another country.
Spanish magistrates have used the doctrine to go after a number of current or former government leaders and terror suspects, even indicting Osama bin Laden over the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. But convictions or extraditions have been rare.
The latest suit was brought by a group of Palestinians.
Besides Ben-Eliezer, Halutz and Ben-Elieser, the six others named in the suit were identified as Dan Halutz, who commanded the Israeli air force at the time, Doron Almog, who at the time was a senior air force commander; Giora Eiland, a national security chief; Michael Herzog, with the Defense Ministry; Moshe Ya'alon, then chief of staff of the IDF; and Avi Dichter, then director of the Shin Bet Security Service and currently public security minister.
The IDF began carrying out targeted killings of Palestinian terrorists after the breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the subsequent outbreak of large-scale suicide bombings and other violence in 2000.
Shehadeh was a top Hamas operative wanted for masterminding suicide bombings. He was killed along with 14 other people, including nine children.
Judge Andreu said one of the reasons he agreed to open an investigation is that Israel has not responded to his request for information about the bombing, nor started legal proceedings itself against the seven.
"In effect, we are faced with an attack on the civilian population," he wrote.
Andreu called the bombing "clearly disproportionate and excessive" and said that if his probe determines the goal from the outset was to target innocent civilians in addition to Shehadeh, he might consider bringing "even more serious" charges.
The judge asked Israel to make the seven former or current officials available for questioning.
Nice man....
PING!
Hmmmm. is this a Spanish inquisition? Should we poke them with the soft cushions or should we get serious and bring out the comfy chair?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Actually the current leftist regime in Spain is supported by ETA and other localist and secessionist elements.
Hmm...I may not e on top of Spanish politics, but I don’t really agree. I’m sure that the ETA and other secessionists like the socialists better than the conservatives, but I think that is far as it goes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6721305.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETA
On March 7, one day prior to the end of the official campaigning period, former Socialist politician Isaias Carrasco was shot to death in Spain’s Basque region. Zapatero blamed the murder on the ETA, a Basque separatist organization. “We know that ETA is defeated by democracy and repudiated by the Spanish people together and by Basque Society,” said Zapatero. “Its members have no other future than jail.”
http://vorzheva.blogspot.com/2008/03/eta-unconfirmed-yet-kills-socialist-ex.html
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