Britain urge Israel be held accountable for British killings
British MPs are being urged to press the government and the international community to act against Israel for killing two UK photojournalists three years ago.
The Committee for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (Caabu) said Saturday it was campaigning for MPs to support a parliamentary petition calling for Israel to be brought to account for shooting Tom Hurndall and James Miller in 2003.
An Early Day Motion to the House of Commons raised after parliament returned from its Easter recess expressed concern about "the apparent culture of impunity which too often accompanies the actions of Israeli forces in the (Occupied Territories."
The petition calls for "appropriate action" against Israel after two separate inquests into the deaths of Hurndall and Miller found that they had been "unlawfully killed" by Israeli soldiers in Rafah refugee camp, in Gaza.
It also urged the international community to press Israel "to comply with international law in the Occupied Territories including the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and to withdraw from all occupied territories."
The motion was raised by Labor MP, Richard Burden, who chairs the All-Party Palestine Group, and has so far received the support for 18 more MPs, including three Conservatives, three Liberal Democrats and a dozen others from the UK's ruling party.
Foreign Office Minister Lord Triesman told parliament on Wednesday that Britain's attorney general Lord Goldsmith would make a statement in response to requests to extradite and prosecute Israeli troops responsible for the killings.
Lord Goldsmith would make a "legal judgment" once he has studied a report from Coroner Andrew Reid, who presided over two inquests in London this month, Triesman said.
"We will decide on the next steps in relation to the government of Israel only when the attorney general has been able to assess the coroner's findings and ministers have discussed the cases with the families," he said during a parliamentary debate on the cases.
In the case of Miller, the Foreign Office minister revealed that the UK had made "40 interventions on the case with the Israelis at the ministerial and permanent undersecretary level in order to try to get them to cooperate fully" but without success.
The parliamentary motion also expressed "grave concern over Israel's failure properly to investigate other cases of international civilians and large numbers of Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli forces."