Israel hosts British MPs to buy support

Sun Dec 18, 2011 4:35PM GMT

A group of British MPs, member to the so-called Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), on a visit to the occupied Palestinian territories. 

 

A new investigative report has found that Israel pays for trips by the UK lawmakers to the occupied Palestinian territories in a desperate attempt to buy their support.

The report released by political activist David Cronin shows that lawmakers including Chloe Smith, Aidan Burley, James Morris and Neil Parish, who are also the members of the so-called Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) in the British political establishment, have visited occupied Palestine during summer this year, from 29 May to 3 June, a trip whose costs were partly paid by the Israeli foreign ministry.

The members of the lower house of the parliament (MPs) cited themselves in separate declarations based on Freedom of Information requests that the cost of their visit has amounted to £1,548 each.

They said that the Israeli foreign ministry has paid £574 of the amount and the remaining £974 was paid by the pro-Israeli lobby group (CFI).

The striking fact was that the visit coincided with the UK government changing its law on universal jurisdiction in favor of Israeli authorities, said Cronin.

The law enables a country to prosecute other countries' officials or other entities' authorities on charges of grave human rights violations irrespective of where they may have happened.

In 2009, Tzipi Livni, the then foreign minister of the Zionist regime, had to cancel a pre-planned trip to London, because some peace activists had sought an arrest warrant for her on charges of committing war crimes during the Zionist army's murderous invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The Conservative Friends of Israel, which organized the MPs' trip, has been working diligently to have the universal jurisdiction law watered down in favor of the Israeli authority.

According to the CFI's website, the organised trips featured tours of production facilities run by the weapons manufacturing company Elbit.

Elbit designs and manufactures the Hermes drones that the Zionist army used to attack Palestinian civilians during its invasion of Gaza. The company also supplies the British army with the same drone aircrafts deployed in the war in Afghanistan.

The Amnesty International has reported that engines used in Elbit's drones have been fitted by a plant belonging to the company near England's second largest city, Birmingham.

More than 80 percent of the Conservative members of the British parliament are actually member to the extremist pro-Israeli lobby group, the Conservative Friends of Israel.

MOL/PKH/HE

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/216437.html