Middle East Monitor - The Latest from the Middle East

Friday, September 03 2010

Commentary-Analysis

Hague and an ethical foreign policy
Hague and an ethical foreign policy
In an article for today's Daily Telegraph, British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, sought to flesh out an ethical framework for a new approach British Foreign Policy.
Read More


Days and Counting
62 days and counting - Jerusalemite MPs still seeking sanctuary in International Red Cross offices

News Flash

US: Israeli rabbi's remarks offensive

Washington has criticized Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef over remarks that Palestinians should perish from this world.

"We regret and condemn the inflammatory statements by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef," US State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said on Sunday.

"These remarks are not only deeply offensive, but incitement such as this hurts the cause of peace," he added.

"As we move forward to re-launch peace negotiations, it is important that actions by people on all sides help to advance our effort, not hinder it," Crowley said.

Read more...

In Pictures

Israel issues demolition orders for two mosques in the West Bank
Israel issues demolition orders for two mosques in the West Bank
Israel issues demolition orders for two mosques in the West Bank


AL JAZEERA ENGLISH (MIDDLE EAST)

Documents

Briefing on Universal jurisdiction ("UJ") and arrest warrants

E-mail Print

Download Briefing PaperJohn Mc HugoBy John McHugo

UJ is the legal power which allows suspected perpetrators of crimes such as war crimes, torture and genocide to be prosecuted in the national courts of countries other than those where the alleged crimes were committed. As a signatory to the four 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1984 UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT), Britain has not only the capacity, but also the duty, to arrest and prosecute those suspected of such crimes.

Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, states that the UK is:

....under an obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 July 2010 13:03 ) Read more...
 

Keynote address by Professor John Duggard to MEMO seminar on universal jurisdiction

E-mail Print

Download Report

John Duggard, Chair of Independent Fact-Finding Committee on Gaza; and Former Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council on Human Rights in Palestine.

It is clear that serious crimes were committed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in its Operation Cast Lead. A number of independent reports including the Goldstone report to the Human Rights Council, the report of Independent Fact-Finding Committee on Gaza to the Arab League, the Martin Commission report to the UN Secretary General on attacks on UN premises, and reports by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights and the National Lawyers Guild, support the conclusion that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the IDF in its Operation. Those who dispute this, such as the US House of Representatives, the US government and many European states, have clearly either not read the evidence presented by these reports or have decided that Israel is above the law. I would like to believe that the European States which voted against the Goldstone report in the General Assembly have not read the report but I fear that they have the reports and have decided that the norms of international Humanitarian law applicable to other states do not apply to Israel.

Read more...
 

Channel 4 Dispatches investigates The pro-Israel lobby in Britain: FULL TEXT

E-mail Print

Download Report

Channel 4 Dispatches investigates The pro-Israel lobby in Britain: FULL TEXT

The pro-Israel lobby in Britain: FULL TEXT

Dispatches investigates the pro-Israel lobby in Britain which is working in support of the interests of the State of Israel. We have obtained a full copy of this by Peter Oborne and James Jones.

Here are some extracts of the 27 page document - The pro-Israel lobby in Britain: full text Click Here to download the full document.

Chapter Two: The Pro-Israel Lobby at Westminster

The senior Tory MP David Amess recently put down a question in the House of Commons to enquire what the British government was doing to improve British relations with Israel. The reply came from Ivan Lewis, foreign office minister with special responsibility for the Middle East: “Israel is a close ally of the United Kingdom and we have regular warm and productive exchanges at all levels… We shall continue to foster a close relationship with Israel.”

This conversation was not quite the simple public exchange that it seemed. Neither politician mentioned that both of them had very close links to pro-Israel organizations. David Amess is the secretary of the Conservative Friends of Israel, which has been described by the famous Conservative Party politician and historian Robert Rhodes James as “the largest organization in Western Europe dedicated to the cause of the people of Israel.”
The Conservative Prime Minister Harold MacMillan once remarked that “there are three bodies no sensible man ever directly challenges: the Roman Catholic Church, the Brigade of Guards and the National Union of Mineworkers.” It is tempting to speculate that today he might have added the Conservative Friends of Israel to that list.

Last Updated ( Monday, 16 November 2009 18:00 ) Read more...
 

EXCLUSIVE: Palestinian draft resolution on Goldstone, Gaza and Jerusalem

E-mail Print

Download Report

The Haaretz Newspaper has obtained a copy of the draft resolution that the Palestinian Authority will present to the United Nations, calling for condemnation of Israel over its actions in Jerusalem, the Gaza conflict of last winter and the closure on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 October 2009 15:23 ) Read more...
 
You are here: Home Resources Documents

MEMO Interacitve

Interactive, send us your videos, pictures and comments

News In Pictures

News in Pictures

MEMO TV

Middle East Monitor TV

Join Our Mailing List