An Israeli general facing a war crimes warrant was allowed to leave Heathrow Airport because armed police feared a gun fight with his bodyguards.
According to documents from the Independent Police Complaints Commission shown to the BBC, Major General Doron Almog flew back to Israel after armed police refused to board his El Al plane in September 2005.
He had flown in to London for a visit to Jewish communities, but after receiving a tip off that police were waiting to execute a warrant brought by Palestinian war crimes campaigners, remained on the plane.
The campaigners had secured the warrant for a private prosecution, alleging May Gen Almog had ordered the destruction of more than 50 homes in the Gaza Strip in 2002.
The BBC reports: Police planned to take him to a police station to consider executing the warrant. However, news of the warrant leaked to the Israeli Embassy.
Officials tipped off the general and he and his wife refused to leave the El Al flight for the two hours it sat at the London airport’s terminal.
The documents now show Det Supt John MacBrayne, a senior counter-terrorism officer who was responsible for the operation, could not get confirmation that his team had the right to board the plane.
El Al, Israel’s national airline, had refused permission.
In his log, he wrote: “Another consideration [was] that El Al flights carried armed air marshals, which raised issues around public safety.
“There was also no intelligence as to whether Mr Almog would have been travelling with personal security as befitted his status, armed or otherwise.”
The officer concluded there were real risks to the police and public and also had concerns about the “international impact of a potentially armed police operation at an airport”.
(Source: BBC)
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11 Responses
Yes, gunfight. If they’d boarded and tried to arrest the general, do you think his bodyguards and the Israeli air marshals would have allowed it? I should hope not. They would certainly have threatened to use their weapons, and if necessary might well have used them, as well they should.
The real question is why is this news now, more than two years later? After all, nothing happened. The UK police briefly considered invading Israeli territory, and thought better of it. End of story.
I wonder if they ever tried to pull the same stunt when Arafat, Ym”Sh, visited.
Oh, I forgot, he was a Nobel Laureate, so they’d never even think of it…
It takes only a picosecond of reflection to see that this paragraph was added simply as an afterthought to reinforce the “violent Israeli” stereotype.
GOod for him, and the bodyguards. THis portrays Israeli spirit in a much better way.
P.S., yea who are these Palestinian war crimes campaigners?
#5 & 7: the Palestian protesters are usually rich, white hippy colledge students who really have no idea what the situation is and are just trying to stir thing up and get back at the “man”.
#6: That’s funny. It took me a femtosecond. (:-)
This story is like a sandwich with fresh bread and a piece of drek for the burger. No matter how much the salesperson tells you how fresh the bread is and how you can get free tomatoes and lettuce etall . Its stil a drek burger but low and behold – people will buy it.
Do you think that for a minute that the Israeli officials wouldn’t respect the law and actually get into a fire fight with peace officers?
It is ridiculous to accept the notion that his so called armed gaurds would not respect the law and thusly become a successful fugitive and scofflaws to boot all in the escape of illegitimate military operations which is the real red herring. This argument is trying to flip what is right and wrong!!
WAKE UP
well I guess thease countrys have yet to learn the hard way…but they will understand sooner or later…that if you let the arebs into your country …they WILL take over..& yes , we jews fill it the first, but it will get to every singol normal person….
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS COUNTRY MIXING INTO ISREALS LIFE???
To the poster above who asked “WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?”
the answer is that unfortunately it was a Jewish Israeli lawyer who works in London who was behind it!
You can find the answer very easily on the Wikipedia article for Doron Almog:
That “…On September 10, 2005, as he arrived in London to do fundraising for Aleh, a handicapped services organization with which he is affiliated, Almog learned that a warrant had been issued (by Chief London Magistrate Timothy Workman at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court) for his arrest for violating the Geneva Conventions…Almog was forced to flee Britain without leaving the plane.”
“The petition for the arrest warrant had been filed by Daniel Machover, acting as attorney for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Machover is the head of Civil Litigation for Hickman & Rose Solicitors (London), and, co-founder (in 1988) of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights. After the failed arrest, Machover demanded an investigation of why police failed to board Almog’s plane, and of who leaked news of the impending arrest. Machover also demanded that Israel’s Foreign Ministry waive their diplomatic privileges to facilitate investigation. Peter Clarke, the UK anti-terrorism coordinator refused these demands, stating that he lacked resources for such an investigation. The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, apologized to his Israeli counterpart over the attempted arrest, and the warrant has been withdrawn.”
And who is Daniel Machover who is the “brains” behind this Chilul H-shem?
Wikipedia has an article about him:
“Daniel Machover is a British Israeli-born attorney. He is the head of civil litigation for Hickman & Rose Solicitors and was the co-founder of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights in 1988. His father, Professor Moshé Machover, was one of the founders of Matzpen.”
“According to an interview in The Independent, ‘Close observations of his parents’ treatment at the hands of the Israeli authorities – including the strip-searching of his mother – heightened Machover’s awareness of the potential for those in uniform to abuse their powers’.”
And what’s “Matzpen”?
Wikipedia has an article about that too:
“Matzpen (Hebrew: מצפן, Compass) is the name of an anti-capitalist and anti-zionist organisation, founded in Israel in 1962 and active until the 1980s. Its official name was the Israeli Socialist Organisation, but it became better known as Matzpen after its monthly publication. The organisation was founded by former members of the Israeli Communist Party – Maki who opposed that party’s unquestioned support for the Soviet Union’s conservative international policies. They offered a more radical analysis of and opposition to Zionism. An early analysis of the Arab-Israeli conflict, written before they left the Communist Party, by Moshe Machover (father of Daniel Machover who sought the arrest of General Almog in 2005) and Akiva Orr (using a pseudonym, A. Israeli), appeared in Hebrew in 1961 under the title of Shalom, Shalom ve’ein Shalom (שלום, שלום, ואין שלום; Peace, peace and there is no peace). Matzpen drew together Jewish and Arab activists with various backgrounds in left-wing organisations and affiliations…”
So it’s pretty sad that it comes from the son of old Israeli communists who now wishes to take revenge on Israel itself by humiliating it.
#1 is correct. A foreign flagged carier is like an embassy. It is the soveriegn soil of that nation and boarding uninvited is asking for an international incident. Interesting that nobody ever thinks about arresting Arabs that actively take part, promote, and encourage mass murder of unaemed civilians. Probably out of fear that might enrage Moslems and cause them to… well…, do the things that they’re doing anyway.