Britain's top officer 'secretly visited alleged Israeli war criminal'

The Chief of the General Staff of Britain's armed forces is reported to have visited Israel quietly last week at the invitation of his Israeli counterpart.

General Sir David Richards met Israel's General Gabi Ashkenazi on September 22 and 23, according to a report by the Israeli daily Haaretz on September 25.

The report claimed that Britain's top commander visited Israeli units making use of “advanced military equipment and briefed senior members of the Israeli staff on British action in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

The two sides were also said to have exchanged intelligence on the Middle East situation.

According to the report, during Richard's visit, Ashkenazi expressed interest in returning the visit by meeting the British general on UK soil. However, this is an impossibility at present since the Israeli commander fears arrest for crimes against humanity and war crimes if he sets foot on European soil.

The report said that Ashkenazi's visit to the UK would be contingent upon “legal relief” being put in place in Britain and the rest of Europe.

Like many other Israeli officers, Ashkenazi could be facing arrest for war crimes, including the targeting of civilians during the 22-day onslaught against the 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants of the blockaded Gaza Strip from last December to January.

In September 10, 2005, the former head of the Israeli army's Southern Command from 2000-2003, Major-General Doron Almog was nearly arrested by the British police as his aircraft landed in London's Heathrow Airport.

However, he was tipped off about his impending arrest for war crimes committed by Israel in previous attacks against Palestinian civilians and refused to disembark and returned to Israel on the same El-Al flight.

If arrested, alleged war criminals face being surrendered to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands for trial.