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JEWS PROTEST, SEEK EXEMPTION
Belgians
draft new law
Israel
to block Belgian law meant to allow Sharon trial BRUSSELS (Reuters)—Israel will try to block Belgian legislation that could pave the way for further war crimes cases to be brought against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday. Relations between the two countries soured when a Palestinian and Lebanese group used a disputed Belgian law to file a complaint against Sharon over his role in a 1982 massacre at Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut. A Brussels appeals court dismissed the case—brought under a 1999 law granting Belgian courts universal jurisdiction over serious human-rights abuses—on grounds of Sharon's absence. Relations between Israel and Brussels looked set to improve after the June ruling but suffered another setback when senators drew up a bill last month that would no longer require a suspect to live in Belgium to be prosecuted under the law. "We're taking it very seriously. We thought the case was over, but the new law could allow a new complaint," Israeli embassy official Laurent Reichman told Reuters. "It's logical that we'll try to use political means to block it," he added. "We're going to act pre-emptively, but we don't yet know how." When Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt visited Israel as part of a European Union delegation last year in the wake of the lawsuit, the mayor of Jerusalem said he should "go to hell." The case prompted Sharon to cancel a trip to Brussels in July 2001.
Remember Sabra and Shatila? Remember the USS Liberty?
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