Thursday, April 23, 2009

Norwegian lawyers accuse Israel of Gaza war crimes

http://newsdeskhelsinkifinland.net:80/news/2751/_norwegian_lawyers_accuse_israel_of_gaza_war_crimes/

Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials could face legal action in Norway over the Gaza offensive after six Norwegian lawyers said Tuesday they would accuse them of war crime.

OSLO - Israel's former prime minister Ehud Olmert and other top officials could face legal action in Norway over the Gaza offensive after six Norwegian lawyers said Tuesday they would accuse them of war crimes. The lawyers, who plan to file their complaint with Norway's chief prosecutor on Wednesday, said they will call for the arrest and extradition of Olmert as well as former foreign affairs minister Tzipi Livni, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and seven senior Israeli army officers.

Under the Norwegian penal code, courts may hear cases involving war crimes and other major violations of human rights.

The lawyers released a statement accusing Israel of "massive terrorist attacks" in the Gaza Strip from December 27 last year to January 25, killing civilians, illegally using weapons against civilian targets and deliberately attacking hospitals and medical staff.

"There can be no doubt that these subjects knew about, ordered or approved the actions in Gaza and that they had considered the consequences of these actions," the lawyers' statement said.

It also said the lawyers were representing a number of people living in Norway.

"It involves three people of Palestinian origin living in Norway and 20 families who lost loved ones or property during the attack," one of the lawyers, Kjell Brygfjeld, said.

When questioned on the chances of the case reaching court, fellow lawyer Harald Stabell said: "If we do nothing, it is more likely that a similar attack will happen again in the future."

"In our eyes, the political aspect is less important than the preventive aspect," he added when asked if the move could hinder Norwegian diplomacy in the region.

Israel's embassy in Oslo said they were unaware of the lawyers' attempt to bring the war crimes charges and could not immediately comment.

Israel said the aim of the Gaza offensive was to stop Islamist militants there from firing rockets into their territory.

Gaza medics said 1,300 Palestinians died during the attacks.
Comment: There is a larger issue going on-the enemies of western civilization realize they cannot defeat us militarily, so they are using our own democracy to implode. Not only in Norway but in the UK, USA and in most Western countries that have a substantial political Muslim population they have turned to our freedom of speech guarantees. They are attacking our freedom to criticize-they do this in multiple ways. One strategy is to make absurd claims, like this one in Norway-this takes our precious time, energy, effort and money and deflects our attention away from the main strategy. They persist, we resist ,for a while. They are counting on the lack of resilience in the West-our eagerness to appease, our willingness to capitulate because it is "too hard to keep on with these pests"-precisely what they expect us to do. The West still does not acknowledge and thus does not accept what we are facing-stealth jihad of magnificent proportions!

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