<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Britain bows to Zionist&nbsp;lobbies]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<div id="divNewsDetail">
<div id="divNewsDatetime">PressTV &#8211;  Sat Sep 17, 2011 10:28AM GMT</div>
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<div id="divLead">The British government seems to be risking its independence from Zionist lobbies after its recent moves to protect Israeli war crimes suspects from prosecution and boycott a UN anti-racism conference that could lead to the condemnation of the regime.</div>
<p>British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his country will not have a representative at the UN meeting on September 22 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 2001 World Conference on Racism claiming the event was anti-Semitic.</p>
<p>&#8220;That conference, and the anti-Semitic atmosphere in which it was held, was a particularly unpleasant and divisive chapter in the U.N.&#8217;s history. It is not an event that should be celebrated,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Arab countries and Iran prepared a draft statement at the conference back in 2001 that described the Israeli regime as racist and tried to condemn the regime&#8217;s treatment of Palestinians.</p>
<p>However, a number of western representatives walked out of the meeting in a clear indication of the Zionist lobbies influence in their countries.</p>
<p>London&#8217;s announcement that they will not attend the anti-racism meeting, when seen against the backdrop of their other move to amend universal jurisdiction law to prevent prosecution of Israeli war criminals, shows anti-Semitism is no more than an excuse to side with the Israeli regime despite its atrocities against civilian Palestinians.</p>
<p>Britain amended its universal jurisdiction law that allowed individuals to lodge lawsuits against foreign officials and request their arrest and trial in Britain on war crimes or torture charges.</p>
<p>Over the past years, the law proved troublesome for Israeli politicians as they faced arrest requests by human rights activists if they visited the UK.</p>
<p>A case in point was the then leader of the Israeli opposition Tzipi Livni who reviewed her British visit after lawyers acting for Palestinians secured her arrest warrant for war crimes.</p>
<p>Under the newly-passed amendment, the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act, Britain&#8217;s Director of Public Prosecutions should authorize any private prosecution requests that fall under universal jurisdiction law.</p>
<p>The move drew condemnations from a range of experts and activists with leading human rights lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson describing the amendment as a “backward step” that shows Britain is “reluctant to bring tyrants and torturers to justice if it suits the government.”</p>
<p>The change in law in favor of the Israeli officials shows the all-out support of Britain for the Israeli regime and blows the lid off the claims that London pulled out of the UN anti-racism meeting due to anti-Semitic concerns.</p>
<p>That is also reflected in Hague&#8217;s insistence that his country sticks to “many of the commitments” of the 2001 conference but in a “way that delivers genuine progress” and apparently anything that goes against the interests of the Israeli regime does not represent progress for its big mentors in London.</p>
<p>AMR/HE</p>
<p><a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail/199617.html">Source</a></p>
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