Spanish judge accepts war crimes charges against former Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer

Via Nur al Cubicle

Spanish justice authorities have opened an investigation into a murderous Gaza bombing ordered by former Israeli Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and involving 6 other high-ranking Israel military officials. The Israelis intended to kill Hamas leader Salah Chehadeh in July 2002 at any collateral cost.

So they blew up an entire building with a one tonne bomb in the Al-Daraj quarter, killing 14 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounding 150 otheers.

Madrid Judge Fernando Andreu has accepted the complaint lodged by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, saying that there was "evidence of crimes against humanity" as part of a "premeditated and predetermined strategy".[Via Le Monde]

The suit was originally launched by six survivors in June 2008, of a 2002 Israeli bomb attack and the relatives of attack's casualties and also names Dan Halutz, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff and Israel Air Force commander at the time.

However...

Haaretez report today "Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos telephoned Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday, and told her his government was undertaking swift action to amend the law in an effort to limit the courts' authority and thus prevent such investigations from being pursued.

Livni welcomed Spain's decision to amend the law, and said it was an important announcement for the Israeli public.

Meanwhile in campaigning for the forthcoming elections Netanyahu, whose likud party is ahead in the polls Netanyahu has made it clear that if elected, he would set clear limits on what is negotiable.

"We will not conduct negotiations on Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people for the past three thousand years," he said in a speech to the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

"We will not return to the 1967 borders," he said, adding that the Golan Heights as well as the Jordan Valley and the Judean Desert in the occupied West Bank "will continue to serve as the state of Israel's eastern security belt."