Weaponised immunity
I know this is getting onto dodgy ground, and nobody expects an entirely sane response when putting the words ‘Israeli general’ and ‘war crimes’ in the same sentence, but I’m puzzled by the story of Major General Doron Almog:
An Israeli general wanted for alleged war crimes escaped arrest in the UK because British police feared an armed confrontation at Heathrow airport.
I say ‘puzzled’ but we’ve learnt over the last few years just how flexible the rule of law can be for you and your mates once you attain a certain status in life. Guess who was at the scene, bowing and scraping? That’s right:
When Maj Gen Almog arrived back in Israel, the planned arrest caused a minor diplomatic storm, with Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom describing the incident as an “outrage”.
In turn, the then UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw apologised to his counterpart for any embarrassment caused.
Should politics lose its lustre for Straw, a career in proctology surely beckons.
No, what I’m really racking my brains about is this: apart from Saudi Princes (obviously), I’m struggling think of anyone else - Rupert Murdoch, maybe? - who else would have been allowed to get away with this without us all going mental. Alan Bennett? Michael Palin? Judi Dench?
Posted on February 19th, 2008 at 11:16 am
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Filed under New Labour, UK politics |
You can get away with all sorts of stuff if it goes widely unreported.
Either the police are incredibly stupid or had their minds elsewhere when they took a trip to to airport, didn’t anyone think to ask what happens if this general chap doesn’t want to get off the plane?
An armed confrontation at Heathrow??!? Are Israeli generals allowed to walk around our commercial airports with automatic weapons?
The trouble with Israel is that nobody really wants to stand up to the usa’s kid brother.
[...] February 19, 2008 — RickB Via Chicken Yoghurt- An Israeli general wanted for alleged war crimes escaped arrest in the UK because British police [...]
The police were playing let’s pretend:
Let’s pretend we’ll arrest him, but tip the Israelis off first so we don’t have to.
Let’s pretend we’ll board the plane, but plead ignorance of the law to cover up for our inaction.
Then Jack Straw finished it all off, pretending for forms sake that the police were “serious” about making an arrest, and that Britain “cares” about International Law. Of course an apology was necessary - the General’s wife’s shopping trip to London was ruined.
Selective policing - El Al, it’s not just an airline, it’s Israel…
The British police allowed a suspected Israeli war criminal to return to Israel despite having a judicial warrant for his arrest at Heathrow airport. Major General Doron Almog is a former Israeli commander in Gaza and was wanted in relation to the d…
Are Israeli generals allowed to walk around our commercial airports with automatic weapons?
No, but El Al security agents travel on all their flights, and they’re armed.