Can UK parliament ignore 100,000 calls for Netanyahu’s arrest?

September 6th, 2015

Awake Goy

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduces his UK counterpart David Cameron in the Knesset, 12 March 2014. More than 100,000 UK residents are calling for Netanyahu’s arrest during a planned visit to London this month.

10 Downing Street

The UK parliament may debate whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be arrested for war crimes.

This is because more than 100,000 UK citizens and residents have signed an official petition calling for the Israeli leader to be arrested when he visits London.

As of early Sunday, there were more than 101,000 signatures on the petition at the parliament’s website.

Under official procedure, a petition that gains 10,000 signatures receives a government response.

As The Electronic Intifada reported, the UK government’s answer last month contained a number of false and contradictory statements, effectively justifying Israeli war crimes.

Several Israeli officials have narrowly escaped arrest in the UK in recent years, often with official complicity.

According to the rules, “Petitions which reach 100,000 signatures are almost always debated” in the House of Commons.

But there is no guarantee this will happen as the petitions committee in the parliament can choose not to have a debate “if the issue has already been debated recently or there’s a debate scheduled for the near future.”

There are currently four other petitions awaiting debates, including one with more than 415,000 signatures calling on the UK to offer asylum and support to more refugees.

Since Netanyahu’s official visit to the UK is scheduled for this month, it is unlikely any debate would take place before he arrives in London.

But the outpouring of support for bringing Netanyahu to justice will clearly be an embarrassment to him and his host, UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

Comments

Petitioners send a message to Cameron: Netanyahu is not welcome

Permalink Yesh Prabhu replied on Sun, 09/06/2015 – 01:21

As of today, 101,255 people have signed the petition to get Netanyahu arrested when he arrives in London. Even though the petition asks for arrest of Netanyahu for committing War Crimes in Gaza, the aim of the petition, of course, is not to arrest Netanyahu, but merely to draw attention to the plight of the Palestinians suffering under Israel’s brutal military occupation, and to discuss in the UK Parliament why Cameron’s government stands by Israel and supports all of Israel’s actions against the Palestinians, no matter how atrocious. I predict that by the time the deadline arrives on February 7, 2016, more than 300,000 Britons would have signed the petition.
There is so much pent up anger against Netanyahu !

The petitioner, Damian Moran, knew, of course, as almost the entire world now knows, that Netanyahu has diplomatic immunity from arrest; their aim, when they signed the petition, however, was only to draw attention to the injustice Palestinians are subjected to daily, in apartheid Israel. Without a doubt the petitioners have accomplished their objective and succeeded admirably.

On the day Netanyahu arrives in London, people are planning to hold a rally in protest over his visit. Obviously, Netanyahu is not very welcome there. I remember the time when a crowd estimated to be 500,000 antiwar people gathered on the streets of London to protest Britain’s role in the Iraq War. Londoners are anticipating such a large crowd again. to protest Netanyahu’s visit to London. I think they intend to send a clear message to Netanyahu and to Israel that this war criminal is not welcome in London.
Yesh Prabhu, Bushkill, Pennsylvania