Arab League demands special court to try Israel

CAIRO: Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby called Thursday for a special criminal court to be set up for Israel, at a meeting to condemn an announcement that it will never return the Golan Heights. Delegates to the Arab bloc are expected to pass a resolution denouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge Sunday that the occupied Golan Heights would remain Israeli “forever.” Israel was acting like “a country that is above the law and accountability,” Elaraby told delegates at the start of the Arab League meeting. He demanded “a special criminal court for the Palestinian cause,” along the lines of international tribunals set up to try ex-officials of “the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Cambodia and Sierra Leone.” Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Cairo and delegate to the Arab League, Ahmed Qattan, accused Israel of trying to profit from the conflict in Syria.“The Zionist entity is exploiting the years of crisis in Syria,” he said. Its members approved a resolution asking the UN Security Council to force Israel to submit to international law and UN resolutions.   AFP