Clamour for Netanyahu’s arrest grows in UK

The number of signatures on a petition for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits London this September has been swelling ever since the petition was hosted on the U.K. government e-petition website earlier this year. The signatures have reached 79,246 as of Monday.

Any e-petition that gets a minimum of 100,000 is up for discussion in the House of Commons. The petition states that Mr. Netanyahu must be arrested under international law for the “massacre of over 2,000 civilians in 2014.” British citizens, including those staying overseas, and British residents are eligible to sign government petitions. 

According to Amnesty International, the Israeli forces “committed war crimes and human rights violations during a 50-day military offensive in the Gaza Strip (in July 2014) that killed over 1,500 civilians, including 539 children, wounded thousands more civilians, and caused massive civilian displacement and destruction of property and vital services.”

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) gives the figure of those killed in the operation as 1,462 Palestinian civilians (a third of them children); while the Palestine Centre for Human Rights claim that 2,168 Palestinian (1,662 civilians, including 519 children and 297 women) were killed. However, it seems unlikely that the petition will achieve its aim, even if the numbers of signatories cross the crucial 100,000 mark.

The British government, which has been a staunch ally of Prime Minister Netanyahu, made it very clear in its response to the e-petition that this would not happen.

Under the U.K. and international law, it claimed, heads of states, governments and ministers for foreign affairs are entitled to immunity “which includes inviolability and complete immunity from criminal jurisdiction.”

Published on the government website, the official response noted that while the British government was “saddened” by the “terrible toll” the conflict in Gaza took last year, Israel was only defending itself.

British Prime Minister David Cameron “was clear on the U.K.’s recognition of Israel’s right to take proportionate action to defend itself, within the boundaries of international humanitarian law.” It pointed to the “terrorist tactics” of Hamas in firing rockets on Israel.

“They built extensive tunnels to kidnap and murder, and repeatedly refused to accept ceasefires. Israel, like any state, has the right to ensure its own security, as its citizens also have the right to live without fear of attack,” it said.