Ahead of a court hearing in Egypt to decide whether the Israeli Shas Party's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, could be indicted for anti-Arab remarks, Israel's Foreign Ministry has accused Egypt of violating the 1979 Camp David accords.
“Before considering whether there is room to indict Yosef for his comments against Arabs, Egypt would do well to put its own house in order,” foreign ministry legal adviser Alan Baker said Monday, quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
According to Baker, Egypt's decision not to send back a resident ambassador to Israel, as well as the anti-Semitism in the Egyptian press, are a "gross violation" of the 1979 Camp David accords. He said that Israel should be "more assertive" and "insistent" vis-a-vis the Egyptians over these violations.
Yosef compared Arabs to snakes in a January speech, and on a later occasion called for their annihilation. The suit was brought by the Egyptian Defense for Arabs Organization.
An attorney for the organization was cited by the Israeli paper as saying that Egyptian law and international human rights charters allowed punishing Yosef for the statements made at a Jerusalem rally.
Baker said that an exchange of letters between Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and US president Jimmy Carter that accompanied the signing of the Camp David accord stipulated that the countries would exchange resident ambassadors one month after signing the accord.
Egypt's ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Bassiouni, who was recalled by Cairo seven months ago as an Egyptian protest over Israel's handling of the current violence, has resigned from a recent appointment to the Shura Council.
Egypt's senior diplomat in Israel now is charge d'affaires Ihab Al Sherif.
Regarding incitement in the press, Annex 3 of the Camp David Accord stipulates that the countries refrain from propaganda against each other, said the Israeli official.
Baker said flatly that Egyptian arguments that it could not curb its "free press" were "nonsense."
Another issue defense and security officials have raised recently - and which they have pointed out as a violation of the Camp David accords - is alleged Egyptian stockpiling of weapons in the Sinai, said the report.
Baker said that the foreign ministry was carefully watching the developments in Belgium regarding the charges brought by 23 victims of the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp massacres against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Baker said that although the ministry was not worried that an indictment against Sharon or any other Israeli would be handed down, followed by an arrest warrant, the case was a "disturbing phenomenon."
"The fact is that several people have started a legal process," Baker said. "Therefore I - as one of the legal advisers - feel the need to look into it. This means looking into how they petitioned the court, what [the petition] says, what's behind the law, how it is being interpreted, and so forth."
The complaint hinges on a 1993 law that makes it possible for Belgian courts to try cases of genocide and other crimes against humanity that took place in foreign countries.
Sharon, a hawkish former general known as the "Bulldozer," was declared unfit to be defense minister after an Israeli commission of inquiry in 1983 found him indirectly responsible for the killings during the invasion he orchestrated.
His career was blighted for years by the scandal, and his landslide win in the February election in Israel over Labor prime minister Ehud Barak had seemed all but impossible only weeks beforehand, according to AFP.
But Sharon has never apologized for his role. And his government slammed a BBC Panorama documentary, which ran Sunday, for suggesting Sharon should be indicted for the massacre.
"Israel takes a grave view of the slanted and unfair nature of the Panorama program," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "The timing of the program, 19 years after the events ... constitutes an attempt to sully the name of Israel and its leader by any means."
According to the Jerusalem Post, Baker said that the ministry was still looking into whether there was any room to take action against the BBC for broadcasting its program.
A mock trial in Egypt started earlier in the week looking into evidence of Sharon’s direct and indirect role in war crimes against Arabs – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
