Tel Aviv / London - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak will not change his plans and return to Israel from a visit to Britain, despite an attempt by Palestinian groups to obtain an arrest warrant against him in London,the minister's bureau said Tuesday. "The minister will not return early to Israel," Barak's bureau told the German Press Agency dpa.
A group of Palestinian families in Britain sought Tuesday to obtain an international arrest warrant for Barak, citing alleged war crimes perpetrated by Israel during its winter offensive in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.
Barak was set to address the Labour Friends of Israel at the Labour Party's annual convention, on Tuesday night.
A spokesman for one of the law firms which applied for the warrant, Irvine Thanvi and Natas, told the Jerusalem Post daily that an arrest warrant has been applied for and that the biggest hurdle would be Barak's diplomatic immunity.
However, the Israeli daily reported, the spokesman was confident that "the strong legal argument" would override the immunity issue.
A loophole in British law allows private individuals to lodge complaints of war crimes against military personnel even if they are not British citizens and the alleged crimes were committed outside Britain.
The appeal to arrest Barak is the first to be lodged after the United Nations issued a report which said that after a lengthy investigation it had found "strong evidence" that both Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement had committed war crimes during the Gaza offensive.
