ISRAEL: Enraged Israeli leaders condemned Belgium yesterday over Brussel's court ruling on Wednesday that Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon could stand trial there on war crimes charges once he leaves office.
Israeli foreign minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu likened the decision to a "blood libel". Justice minister Mr Meir Sheetrit referred to Belgium as "a small and insignificant nation". And Israel's chief rabbi invoked the Holocaust.
"We in Israel and the Jewish people as a whole have had enough of blood libels on the soil of Europe and we are going to fight this one with everything we have politically, and dipomatically," said Mr Netanyahu, who yesterday summoned the Belgian ambassador to Israel, Mr Wilfred Geens, to castigate him over the ruling by the Belgian Supreme Court. On Wednesday evening, Mr Netanyahu recalled Israel's ambassador to Belgium, Mr Yehudi Kinar, to protest against the court's decision.
The court actually threw out the request by Palestinian-Lebanese survivors of the Sabra and Chatila massacres in 1982 to order the prosecution of Mr Sharon, who was defence minister at the time. But it added that once the prime minister leaves office, and no longer enjoys diplomatic immunity, then proceedings against him can be revived.
The court also ruled, however, that the director-general of Israel's defence ministry, Mr Amos Yaron, who was the commander of Israeli forces in Beirut at the time of the massacres, could be tried because he does not have diplomatic immunity. The court's decision was based on a Belgian law which allows for genocide and war crimes charges to be brought against non-residents.
Several months after Israeli forces entered Beirut in 1982, a Lebanese Christian militia, allied with Israel, moved into the two camps south of the Lebanese capital and slaughtered hundreds of Palestinians. Mr Sharon was forced to resign after a state commission of inquiry found him indirectly responsible.
Mr Sharon's office released a statement calling the ruling a "scandalous provocation", and chief rabbi Israel Meir Lau said that Belgium, which "stood idly by as Jewish blood flowed like a river" during the Holocaust, was now playing the role of "the world's policeman".
Attorney General Mr Elyakim Rubinstein said the ruling was politically-motivated in that proceedings only began once Mr Sharon became prime minister in 2001.