Vice-prime minister warned he could be arrested in UK on suspicion of war crimes
Israeli strategic affairs minister Moshe Ya'alon Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli vice prime minister, has turned down an invitation to a fundraising event in London. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
An Israeli cabinet minister has turned down an invitation to visit Britain next month after he was warned he might face arrest on suspicion of war crimes.
Moshe Ya'alon, vice-prime minister and strategic affairs minister, was invited by the Jewish National Fund to an event in London to raise money for a group that supports Israeli lone soldiers – troops who have no family in Israel.
Ya'alon has not visited Britain for several years and turned to the foreign ministry's legal department for advice. They warned him not to travel for fear he might be arrested over an incident dating back to July 2002, when he was chief of staff of the Israeli military. At that time an Israeli jet bombed a house in Gaza, killing Salah Shehadeh, the then leader of the Hamas military wing. A further 14 civilians, including Shehadeh's wife and several children, died in the attack.
Ya'alon's decision not to travel follows an attempt last week to have a British court issue an arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, over Israel's war in Gaza last January. The warrant was not granted because Barak was regarded as having diplomatic immunity.
There is concern in Israel that senior ministers and serving or former high-ranking military officers are at risk of prosecution in several countries abroad under "universal jurisdiction", a growing area of law in which suspected perpetrators of serious crimes can be prosecuted in countries other than where they were committed.
"The minister hasn't visited England for a couple of years in order not to play into the hands of the propaganda that is going on against the State of Israel, its leaders and its officers," said Alon Ofek-Arnon, the spokesman for Ya'alon. "This is a campaign that is aimed at delegitimising the state of Israel."
He said the legal campaign began with the Shehadeh case and was continuing with the UN inquiry into the Gaza war, led by the judge Richard Goldstone. "This battle needs internal fortitude and judicial and legal diplomacy and that is what is being done."
One Israeli report said there were only three Israeli lawyers responsible for giving such legal advice: Menachem Mazuz, the attorney general, along with his deputy, Danny Taub, and another lawyer, Adi Scheiman.
Several other senior Israeli figures, including politicians and generals, have been told to check with the legal team before travelling to several destinations around the world, including Britain and Spain, for fear of more court cases.
In 2005 an Israeli general, Doron Almog, was nearly held by police at Heathrow airport for a private prosecution, again based on military operations in Gaza, but he was tipped off, did not leave the plane and flew out of the country avoiding arrest.