Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter has cancelled a visit to Britain over concerns he could be detained on war crimes allegations, his spokesman said on Thursday. "Minister Dichter has cancelled this trip following threats of him being arrested in Great Britain. This is an intolerable situation," Barak Sari said, according to AFP.
Dichter was due to travel to Britain to participate in an "after Annapolis" conference to focus on the aftermath of the November US conference at which Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were revived. But he called off the trip on the recommendation of the foreign ministry, the Haaretz daily reported.
As head of Israel's Shin Beth internal intelligence agency, Dichter was involved in the 2002 Israeli attack in Gaza in which an Israeli warplane dropped a one-ton bomb on the house of Hamas' military wing chief, Salah Shehade, killing him, his bodyguard and 15 civilians, many of them children.
