When Prince Philip of Belgium was in town recently, he received a letter from the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Bay Area chapter of the American Jewish Committee.
The letter urges the Belgian Parliament to reconsider its universal jurisdiction law and criticizes its Supreme Court for charging Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other Israeli officials with alleged war crimes during the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon. Belgium wants to put them on trial after their political terms end.
The Belgian Supreme Court’s little-used universal jurisdiction law allows suits to be filed for war crimes and other crimes against humanity regardless of where they took place or the nationality of the perpetrators.
The letter drafted by Steve Berley, director of Israel programs at the JCRC, said: “The issue in question was resolved over 20 years ago, Belgian law has no jurisdiction in the matter, and the notion that one country can unilaterally apply its laws on other nations sets a dangerous precedent for our world.”
It was signed by the JCRC’s executive director, Rabbi Doug Kahn, and its president, David Steirman, as well as AJCommittee’s regional director, Ernest Weiner, and its Bay Area chapter president, Susan Osher Epstein.
The letter points out that 21 years ago, the Israeli government conducted an investigation into the Sabra and Shatila massacres that was widely praised around the world.
The letter goes on to say: “This appears to be an attempt by the courts to control matters beyond Belgium’s borders solely for political purposes.”
The charges against Sharon were brought before the Belgian court by a group of Lebanese citizens, condemning his role in the 1982 massacres, when some 800 Palestinians were murdered by Christian Phalangist troops outside of Beirut, while the refugee camps were under Israeli control. Sharon was found indirectly responsible for the massacre by an Israeli judicial commission.
“These issues were resolved 20 years ago,” Berley told the Jewish Bulletin. “Belgium is singling out Israel” for this kind of treatment.
That is especially hypocritical, he maintains, since Belgium is seeking the support of the United Nations to prevent a war in Iraq but is trying to override the jurisdiction of the United Nations in this case. “It seems totally inappropriate.”
Berley personally delivered the letter to the Belgian Trade Commission, the only office Belgium maintains in San Francisco. A spokeswoman there said the letter was promptly forwarded to the consul general of Belgium in Los Angeles.