Spain’s National Court cancelled arrest orders issued by a lower court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and six other former and present Israeli officials, Benjamin Weinthal, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, reported Saturday for The Jerusalem Post.
Initially signed in November, the warrants called for the arrest of Netanyahu; former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman; past and current defense ministers Ehud Barak and Moshe Ya’alon, respectively; former interior minister Eli Yishai; former intelligence minister Dan Meridor; and former minister Benny Begin over their role in the interception of the Mavi Marmara vessel in 2010.
The ship, which was under the control of the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation— a group designated as a terror organization by the Netherlands and Germany— was part of a flotilla that attempted to breach Israel’s legal blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. After the IDF boarded the Mavi Marmara, they were attacked by members of the crew. Ten crew members were killed in the ensuing fight, and several Israeli soldiers were injured. The other ships in the flotilla were diverted without incident.
The lower court judge who issued the warrants had accepted the case of three anti-Israel activists who had been on the Mavi Marmara when the incident occurred.
“It is good that this matter has been put to rest,” said David Hatchwell Altaras, President of the Jewish Community of Madrid and Chairman of Taglit Europe. “What is appalling is that a Spanish judge would want to open a case related to the only country in the Middle East where a legal system guarantees fairness. Where are cases being opened against Khamenei, Assad, al-Baghdadi and other undisputed violators of human rights?”
The Mavi Marmara incident was recently in the news as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed an interest in restoring diplomatic ties with Israel. The two countries reached a preliminary agreement earlier this month, putting them on track to ending five years of strained relations.
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