By IRNA,
London : An Irish journalist has been thwarted in trying to execute a citizen’s arrest of Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman for the crime of apartheid at a Brussels press conference.
David Cronin said that Leiberman was “the architect of a series of laws designed to make Israeli apartheid even more draconian than it already is.”
“If apartheid is a crime, there is only one way to treat its practitioners: arrest them. That is precisely what I tried to do,” Cronin said on his blog.
The 39-year old freelance journalist from Dublin attempted last year to arrest former British prime minister Tony Blair for war crimes in Iraq when he was on his way to the European parliament to address a committee on his work as Middle East peace envoy.
In Brussels on Tuesday, he confronted the Israeli foreign minister saying: ”Mr Lieberman this is citizen’s arrest. You are charged with the crime of apartheid. Please come with me to the nearest police station.”
But officials intervened and escorted him from the press room, when he was searched, questioned by a senior security guard and asked to provide a statement.
“I was about to say something further when I felt two guards grabbing my arms. I shouted ‘Free Palestine’ two times; I shouted ‘Apartheid is a crime’ once,” Cronin explained.
He said that the decision to confront Lieberman was taken after visiting the occupied territories last Friday where he was “shocked by how Israeli soldiers and police in full riot gear were firing tear gas at young boys who were doing nothing more sinister than throwing stones at the forces of occupation.”
“Although apartheid is synonymous with South Africa, it has been recognised as a crime by the United Nations since 1973,” Cronin said.
“In the two years that Lieberman and his party Yisrael Beitenu have been in government, about 20 new laws and bills have been brought before the Knesset with the specific aim of copper-fastening Israeli apartheid,” he said.
The Irish journalist played down the consequences of having press badge confiscated that gave him access to the headquarters of the EU’s main institutions.
“Palestinians are deprived of liberty every day because of the policies pursued by Lieberman and his government colleagues. Compared to the restrictions on movement caused by military checkpoints in the West Bank or by that medieval blockade of Gaza, the loss of my press card is of no consequence,” he said.