http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710862408&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull Article's topics: Almagor, NATO, Salah Shehadeh, Yugoslavia
As Judge Fernando Andreu of Spain's National Court decided on Monday to push on with the inquiry into an IAF bombing in Gaza in 2002 that killed Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh and 14 others, the Israeli Terror Victims Association Almagor was finalizing a lawsuit against NATO personnel who approved bombings in Yugoslavia in the 1990s where some 2,500 civilians were killed.
Spanish prosecutors last month urged Andreu to suspend the inquiry on the grounds Israel was still investigating the attack, but he said was acting under Spain's observance of the principle of universal jurisdiction, which holds that for grave crimes such as genocide, terrorism or torture, suspects can be prosecuted in the country even if the alleged offenses have been committed elsewhere.
Several top Spanish nationals, including EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, who served as NATO secretary general from 1995-1999, are named in Almagor's case, as are officials from many other European countries and the United States - or every country involved in NATO.
Almagor head Meir Indor told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that it was a "fluke" that the organization was finalizing its lawsuit just as Andreu decided to pick up the case.
"We were preparing the case anyway, building on the success of the lawsuit against [former PLO leader Yasser] Arafat," he said.
Almagor sued Arafat in a Belgian court in November 2001 after Palestinians filed a lawsuit in the same court against then-prime minister Ariel Sharon. 13 terror victims went to Belgium to testify at the behest of Almagor. The countering lawsuit against Arafat, Indor said, rippled in the European and American media, eventually bringing the Belgians to drop the case against Sharon.
Indor told the Post that his organization even considered suing the Spanish Royal Family over the Spanish Inquisition in the 17th Century, and even the expulsion of Spain's Jews in 1492 and the subsequent confiscation of their assets.
Indor admitted that the Yugoslavian case being prepared now was meant to "embarrass or open a Pandora's Box" that would make third parties think twice before accepting lawsuits filed against Israel by the Palestinians. "We see it as a matter of exposing the double standard" of Europeans accusing Israel of war crimes when these same countries' soldiers committed far worse atrocities under the framework of NATO.
Every European member country of NATO and the United States would be implicated, and, Indor said, the lawsuit would be pressed in every country that would decide to sue Israeli officials over war crimes allegedly committed in Gaza either during the Shehadeh assassination or more recently.
"Even right now, IDF generals cannot travel to the United Kingdom for fear of being arrested the minute they set foot in the airport," he told the Post.
A delegate of the organization currently in Serbia was identified by Indor as "Mr. D." Mr. D is an Israeli businessman who happened to get caught in the crossfire when the bombings started and still conducts business in Serbia today.
The Serbs, Indor quoted Mr. D as saying, were enthusiastic when Almagor picked up their case. Indor emphasized that Almagor is a humanitarian organization representing terror victims globally, not strictly in Israel, and was in the process of securing power of attorney from the Serbs to represent their case.
Topic: Israel planning to sue E.U. Spain over killing of Serbians (Read 3141 times)