Former head of Israel’s Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) Avi Dichter has canceled a trip to Spain over fears he will be greeted with an arrest warrant at Madrid airport.
The Member of Knesset was scheduled to attend a conference on the Israel-Palestinian Authority peace process, organized by The Madrid Coalition. However, despite his status as a lawmaker, Dichter is being refused diplomatic immunity by Spain in PA-generated legal action over the assassination of a Hamas terrorist.
Salah Shehade, then-leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, was assassinated during Dichter’s tenure as head of the Shin Bet.
Dichter is also allegedly being charged for involvement in Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s three-week counter terrorism war against Gaza’s Hamas terrorist rulers at the end of 2008. At the time, Dichter was serving as Public Security Minister in the government of then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
The MK responded sharply in a letter to newly-installed Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez, noting it was “absurd that representatives from the Palestinian Authority, who worked within the Palestinian security mechanism with God knows what kind of record, meet with no difficulties when they arrive in Spain.”
Dichter reminded the foreign minister, “It is important to remember that this isn’t just dangerous for Avi Dichter. An arrest of this kind has dangerous national repercussions.”
Jimenez, 48, took over her ministerial post on October 21 from her predecessor, Miguel Angel Moratinos, who served in the post for the past six years. The new foreign affairs minister, a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, served as Secretary of State for Latin America from 2006 to 2009. In April of last year, she became Minister of Health and Social Policies, the position in which she served until she was tapped to become Spain’s foreign affairs minister.