UK leaders accused of supporting Israeli war criminals http://www.irna.ir/ENNewsShow.aspx?NID=30313575&SRCH=1

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Monday condemned the leaders of Britain's three main political parties for supporting changes that will make it more difficult to arrest war crimes suspects who visit the UK.“The changes to our laws were requested by Israel following the threat of arrest of two of their citizens, Major General Almog in 2005 and (former foreign minister) Tzipi Livni in 2009,” it said.Last Thursday, Foreign Secretary William Hague defended the changes in the law, claiming in parliament that the legal system was “abused” when an arrest warrant was issued against Livni that prevented her from coming to the UK.  “She is an Israeli politician of great importance, and a strong advocate of the peace process, but she feels unable to visit the United Kingdom because of that law.If we want, as we do, to be able to engage in pushing forward the peace process, we need such people to be able to visit the United Kingdom,” Hague said.

PSC director Sarah Colborne accused the government of “playing a confidence trick over parliament by pretending it will still be possible to get an arrest on the basis of a solid case.” “The fact is that war crimes suspects will not face arrest unless the attorney general gives the nod – politicising our universal jurisdiction process and allowing war crimes suspects from ‘friendly states’ to visit with complete impunity. This will make a mockery of our justice system and we are determined to expose it,” Colborne said. Over 120 MPs have signed an Early Day Motion pledging to vote against any change to universal jurisdiction, but the amendment is expected to be passed as Labour also told Israel that it would restrict possible arrests before it lost power last May.  To symbolise their opposition, the PSC were staging a photo-opportunity Monday with members wearing the masks of three party leaders, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband welcoming an Israeli general outside parliament on Monday.