Should Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ever set foot inside Spain, he—and six other current and former Israeli government officials—will be subject to arrest, thanks to a Spanish judge who effectively issued an arrest warrant for the group late last week.
As to be expected, the Israeli Foreign Ministry was less than thrilled, as spokesperson Emmanuel Nachshon responded, according to The Jerusalem Post, “We consider [the judge’s order] to be a provocation. We are working with the Spanish authorities to get it canceled. We hope it will be over soon.”
At the heart of the matter for Spanish National Court Judge José de la Mata—and humanitarians worldwide—lies the 2010 attack by Israeli commandos on the civilian humanitarian ship, the Mavi Marmara. It was one of six vessels in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and carried around 500 passengers.
The fleet was attempting to break through the Israeli blockade of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and construction materials on a small yet necessary scale when the Mavi Marmara was attacked by Israeli security forces—commandos—who boarded and then shot and killed nine activists. A tenth activist died from injuries sustained during the raid, which occurred in international waters, after spending four years in a coma.
In July, the International Criminal Court harshly criticized Gambian-born prosecutor Fatou Bensouda for failure to re-open the Mavi Marmara case despite a “reasonable basis” to believe war crimes had been committed. As the ICC judges stated,
The prosecutor should have accepted that live fire may have been used prior to the boarding of the Mavi Marmara, and drawn the appropriate inferences. This fact . . . may reasonably suggest that there was, on the part of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] who carried out the identified crimes, a prior intention to attack and possibly kill passengers on board.
A U.N. Human Rights Council investigation into the raid found “clear evidence to support prosecutions” of war crimes under the Geneva Conventions based on willful killing, torture, or inhuman treatment, and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health. Youngest of the victims, 18-year-old Furkan Dogan, had been shot five times, including one shot to his face as he lay on his back, the UNHCR report concluded.
According to The Latin American Herald Tribune, besides Netanyahu, de la Mata ordered police and civil guard to notify him should former Defense Minister Ehud Barak, former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, former Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon, former Interior Minister Eli Yishai, former Minister without Portfolio Benny Begin, and Vice Admiral Maron Eliezer (who headed the operation) ever step foot on Spanish soil.
Though Netanyahu claimed at the time IDF forces had been attacked by the activists and thus acted in self-defense, the investigation found no medical evidence to substantiate that story. In fact, the UNHCR went a step further—echoing human rights organizations and activists worldwide—calling Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip “totally intolerable and unacceptable in the 21st century.”
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Hmm, I wonder if Netanyahu has the guts to test this, and if Spain has the guts to follow through.
Nutty is pure scum – turn about is fair play – hope he gets what he deserves – !X@#!!
They commit atrocities while claiming to be “God’s Chosen People” their philosophy is similar to ISIS and the rest of those murderous vermin.
In fact the Zionists and ISIS are almost alike. They are both gangs of foreigners from all around the world who show up to steal land and murder the owners. The only difference is the crimes of the Zionists began 70 years ago and the crimes of ISIS only began 4 years ago.
Indeed ISIS is USUS and ISISRAEL. The U.S. And Israel created and continue to fund/sustain ISIS. Israeli hospitals service wounded ISIS fighters. The ISIS fighters with whom John McCain was photographed at that Jordanian training camp in 2013 were/are M0ss@d agents. The whole ‘war on terror’ and bogus ‘Arab Spring’ have been, in fact, smoke screens to fol the public about the vicious war of aggression to establish ‘Greater Israel’ through the destruction of the governments and societies of neighboring countries.
We know that USA pays the apartheid Zionist regime with $3billion a year in weapons to commit their vile war crimes and crimes against humanity. Obviously you are a Zionist clown that supports a vile entity sitting on stolen Palestinian land. BDS for them so they can go home to Europe and America to be a menace to imperialists instead of being a nuisance to the people who legally own the stolen land from which the Zionists will be driven..