Tzipi Livni arriving for a Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, July 21, 2013. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)
(JTA) — British police asked Tzipi Livni to appear for an interview regarding war crimes allegations while she was Israeli foreign minister in 2008-09.
Livni, who was headed to London for a conference convened by the Haaretz newspaper, declined the voluntary summons on Thursday before leaving Israel, the newspaper reported Sunday.
Israeli officials took the precaution, however, of arranging a meeting for her with British foreign office diplomats so her visit would be under cover of diplomatic immunity. Livni is now a member of the opposition Zionist Union faction in the Knesset.
Livni, a member of the Security Cabinet during the 2008-09 war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, decried the threat of arrest by British police faced by senior Israeli officials who visit London. The police are acting on complaints filed by pro-Palestinian groups.
“The fact that Israeli decision-makers and army commanders are forced to participate in a theater of the absurd when we come to London is something that is not acceptable,” she told Haaretz. “It’s not a personal issue, it’s a moral issue and this is something that needs to be changed.”
