The Parliament of Jordan, with which Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994, has filed war-crime charges in the Hague against Olmert, Barak, and other top Israelis.

The head of the Jordanian legislature’s law committee, Mubarak Abu Yamin, announced that the charges against Israel’s leadership were filed because of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead military offensive in Gaza. 

The three-week offensive, which ended in mid-January, was Israel’s attempt to wipe out the terrorist infrastructures that were responsible for the firing of over 10,000 rockets at Israeli homes, farms and schools over the preceding eight years.

Named in the charge sheet were Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter.

Dichter: Height of Jordanian Hypocrisy

Dichter responded angrily to the news: “Jordan is in no position to teach Israel about combat ethics. There is no bigger hypocrisy for Jordan - which just 39 years ago, in September 1970, murdered 10,000 of its Palestinian citizens - to deal with international crimes.”

Abu Yamin said he plans to meet on Thursday with the Hague prosecutor in preparation for the filing of the charges - although it was later reported that the trip had been "postponed to a later date." 



Jordan’s National Center for Civil Rights, headed by former Jordanian Prime Minister Adnan Badran, is also behind the initiative.  

International Laws Should be Adjusted

Prof. Sinai Deutsch, President of the Netanya Academic College, told Arutz-7 on Sunday that international law guidelines regarding terrorism must be rewritten: “Spain, England and other countries need not have a right to file charges against countries fighting wars unconnected to them.  Such countries thus become a tool in the hands of anti-Semitic and other political elements who seek not justice, but revenge.”

Deutsch said that the “so-called  pursuit of civil rights [in this case] is, in essence, a defense of terrorism.”  He said that current international law guidelines “relate chiefly to wars between regular armies of countries; they do not supply an answer for war between a nation and a terrorist organization such as Hamas and Hizbullah.”

Gov't Action

Three weeks ago, the Cabinet approved Defense Minister Barak’s proposal to grant IDF officers and soldiers legal backing in the event that charges related to the war in Gaza are raised against them. Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann will head a team of legal experts who will formulate responses to legal questions that may arise in this regard.