JERUSALEM, 17 September 2005 — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has complained about legal proceedings against senior Israeli officers in Britain by quipping that he could be arrested himself on a visit to London, media reported yesterday.
Meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the sidelines of the UN summit in New York, Sharon responded angrily to an invitation to visit Britain by saying that as a general he did not want to do time in a “tough” British jail.
A London magistrate has issued a warrant for the arrest of Doron Almog, one of Israel’s former commanders of the Gaza Strip over his role in a 2002 bombing raid that killed 15 Palestinians, many of them children.
Chief of staff Dan Halutz and his predecessor Moshe Yaalon are also the subject of a case being compiled by Israeli activists and London lawyers over their role in the same operation.
“I would really like to visit Britain,” Sharon was quoted as replying to Blair’s invite by the Yediot Ahronot newspaper.
“The trouble is that I, like Gen. Almog, also served in the IDF for many years. I too am a general. I have heard that the prisons in Britain are very tough. I wouldn’t like to find myself in one,” he was reported to have said.
Army radio, quoting aides of Sharon, said the British prime minister was clearly embarrassed by the exchange and promised to take care of the matter.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Wednesday it was “scandalous” that Britain wanted to question Israeli soldiers for alleged war crimes.
