Israel demands Britain change law on war crimes

Israel demanded Britain change its law on Tuesday after reports that former foreign minister Tzipi Livni would have risked arrest on war crimes charges over last year's assault on the Gaza Strip, had she not cancelled a visit to London.

The legal jeopardy faced by Israeli politicians and military officers could damage Britain's efforts to play a role in Middle East peacemaking, Israel's foreign ministry said after British media reported a magistrate had issued an arrest warrant for Livni at the behest of lawyers acting for Palestinians in the blockaded and impoverished strip.

Britain said it was urgently looking into the implications.

The warrant is the latest in a number of such incidents to discomfit senior Israelis in Britain in recent years. It was withdrawn, British media said, after Livni, now leader of the opposition, cancelled plans to attend a meeting last weekend.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said: "A lack of immediate and decisive action to amend the anomalies harms relations between the two countries."

"If Israeli leaders cannot visit Britain in an appropriate and respectable manner it will be a natural obstacle to Britain's wish to fulfill an active role in the Middle East peace process."

A statement from the British embassy in Israel said: "The United Kingdom is determined to do all it can to promote peace in the Middle East, and to be a strategic partner of Israel.

"To do this, Israel's leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case."

Livni herself, whose low domestic profile has been given a boost by the controversy, brushed off the arrest warrant in a speech in Tel Aviv in which she defended her actions in Gaza.

"Israel had to do the right thing -- condemnation or no condemnation, statements or no statements, arrest warrants or no arrest warrants. This is the role of a leadership," she said.

Israel's leaders need to be able to come to the U.K. for talks with the British government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case

British Foreign Office spokeswoman

UK takes urgent steps

Last month, British ambassador Tom Phillips told a group of Israelis concerned at what they called a sharp rise in hostility to the Jewish state in Britain that the government did not support court action against Israeli leaders, but was bound by existing laws.

He indicated it was considering curbing courts' powers to issue such warrants for the arrest of foreign officials. But he said Israel's Gaza offensive a year ago, which prompted public dismay in Britain over the hundreds of Palestinian civilian deaths, had made it more difficult for the government to legislate for that.

International human rights bodies, including a commission set up by the United Nations, have said Israeli political and military officials should answer allegations of war crimes over the three-week air, sea and land assault launched on Dec. 27.

More than 1,400 Palestinians died, while the toll on the Israel side was 13. Israel said it acted according to high military and moral standards during the war despite evidence it dropped white phosphorous bombs in residential areas.

In September, pro-Palestinian groups failed to persuade a London court to issue an arrest warrant for Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Former general Moshe Yaalon, a deputy to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he will not travel to England for fear of prosecution over war crimes allegations.