100,000 Sign British Petition Demanding Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arrest
Image by Getty Images
A petition calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visits Britain in September has reached more than 100,000 signatures and must be considered for debate in Parliament.
The online petition was uploaded on Aug. 7 to the United Kingdom Parliament’s official website.
“Under international law he should be arrested for war crimes upon arrival in the U.K. for the massacre of over 2000 civilians in 2014,” the petition says, citing Netanyahu’s visit scheduled for Thursday.
The petition had nearly 107,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning. It passed the 100,000 mark over the weekend.
“Under UK and international law, visiting heads of foreign governments, such as Prime Minister Netanyahu, have immunity from legal process, and cannot be arrested or detained,” the British government said in response to the petition.
“We recognize that the conflict in Gaza last year took a terrible toll. As the Prime Minister said, we were all deeply saddened by the violence and the UK has been at the forefront of international reconstruction efforts. However the Prime Minister was clear on the UK’s recognition of Israel’s right to take proportionate action to defend itself, within the boundaries of international humanitarian law, “the petition continued.
The House of Commons has not set a date for a Parliamentary debate on the petition.
On Monday, a group of union leaders, three British lawmakers and prominent activists published a letter in the British daily, The Guardian, denouncing Netanyahu’s visit.
“Our prime minister should not be welcoming the man who presides over Israel’s occupation and its siege of Gaza. We call on him to instead impose immediate sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel until it complies with international law and ends the blockade and the occupation,” the letter said, in part.
Demonstrations and protests against Netanyahu are planned for London in advance of the visit, according to the Guardian.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews also called for supporters to gather outside the Prime Minister’s office at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday at 11 a.m. to show support for Netanyahu and for the relationship between Britain and Israel.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
