London, United Kingdom – Ten British citizens, including two nationals, who served in the Israeli army are accused of war crimes in Gaza.
They are suspected of acts such as “murder, extermination, attack civilians and expulsion or a transfer of forced population”, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the Center for Public Interest Law based in the United Kingdom, which submitted last week a 240-page report to the Metropolitan Police Crimes of the Crimes of War Crimes.
Michael Mansfield, 83, a leading English lawyer who worked on several high-level cases throughout his career and is nicknamed “the King” of human rights work, was one of those who put the file that took a team of lawyers and researchers in Great Britain and Hague six months to compile.
Dozens of other lawyers, lawyers, researchers and human rights practitioners have signed a letter of support, urging the War Crimes team to investigate complaints.
For legal reasons, nor the names of the suspects, some of which worked at the officer’s level, nor the entire report are made public. The alleged war crimes from October 7, 2023 to May 31 are documented in the file, which is based on open source materials and witness testimonies.
Tel Aviv Tribune interviewed Mansfield about the historic affair, his opinions on the genocide of Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza and why he thinks that legal efforts against people involved in the assault remain important, even if critical decisions are ignored by people in power and that massacres are constantly continuing.
Tel Aviv Tribune: What can you tell us about the case?
Michael Mansfield: The reason why I cannot talk about detail is perhaps obvious: … people (accused) would immediately know who they were.
If a British national commits a serious crime abroad, … you are likely to be and investigate, arrested, charged and judged here in the United Kingdom. It is nothing out of the ordinary in this direction.
The song outside the end, of course, is that it is linked to war crimes and crimes against humanity, which are international crimes.
The United Kingdom can obviously investigate themselves, where the International Criminal Court can investigate and accused, etc.
No one can ignore the extent of devastation, especially in Gaza, although this is not the only place in the world where such things occur. And in relation to these questions, the public asks: “What do we do about it?” What can we do about it? “
International justice institutions and human rights agreements were established just after the Second World War in order to prevent this from happening, if possible, by intervening.
(But) The ability of the United Nations to intervene was emasculated by the great nations – Russia and America almost always opposing. In addition to that, the United Kingdom seated on the fence and abstaining on most of these questions.
Slowly but surely, all the principles to do with the rule of law and democracy based on rules were essentially devoid of the practical aspect.
The court finds that it is very difficult to do anything because countries (allegedly behind war crimes) are apparently immune. This does not care that international courts may think – or the International Criminal Court (or the) International Court of Justice.
Tel Aviv Tribune: As most monitors and observers are unable to enter Gaza currently due to the Israeli seat, how did the researchers and lawyers behind the report identify the accused?
Mansfield: Binding the individual (to alleged crimes) is the problem. You must be able to provide the investigators with evidence at least enough for them to say that this deserves to be studied.
They might say, “We can’t do that. It’s too difficult. ” Then they could hand it over to the international criminal court, which has more resources.
There is something called the Berkeley protocol, which focuses on how you would bring together evidence from sources accessible to the public.
Sources accessible to the public could be Tel Aviv Tribune (images). It could be someone who makes a selfie on his own phone.
The research has already been carried out to ensure that the equipment of these 10 is sufficient for the police to make a decision, whether it can make more or not.
Tel Aviv Tribune: This month, Hungary withdrew from the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu, before a visit to the Israeli Prime Minister. If the global institutions which are intended to respect the laws on human rights are threatened, the decisions are bypassed and the massacres continue in places like Gaza, what impact legal efforts like yours have?
Mansfield: I think they make a difference for those of us who care about it.
I mean, they don’t make a difference for the authors. They never did it. And that is why they had the tests of Nuremberg at the end of the Second World War.
ALawyer SA, I can’t just sit down and say that I have lost 55 years in my career. I must be able to say that I tried to get a situation in which people are made responsible.
The law has not been able to deliver. The law is there, the institutions are there, but until governments … begin to pay tribute to the rule of law and do not ignore it, there are many different ways for which people can be made responsible. As a lawyer and as members of the public, we must be ready to make the authorities really do their work because if we do not do it, no one else will do it, and that will get worse.
The basic freedoms that you and I appreciate when we can – freedom of association, movement, speech, etc. – They are not divisible. What I mean by that is that you could live on the other side of the world, but if it is your rights attacked in this way, it is me too. Don’t be mistaken, when it happens there, it could be you afterwards.
This kind of approach to human rights is not a kind of awakened subject that only a few liberal lawyers think. He was fought hard by other people. Lawyers from the past have fought very hard to install everything.
Tel Aviv Tribune: Do you classify what’s going on in Gaza as a genocide?
I do it, yes, no questions.
In this particular case, if you are personally attacked in the domestic sense or in others, you are entitled to defend yourself but only up to a point.
If you are attacked with someone who holds a wooden spoon, you cannot use a machine gun to kill them. … This went far beyond self-defense.
Of course, they (the attackers, in this case, Israel) will always justify it and will say that it is a self -defense, but you only have to see what they did.
Many victims are women, babies and children and doctors and journalists. … They are individuals protected under the law. If they are not fighters, they are not destroyed in this way.
In my opinion, it is clearly a genocide because they have (Israeli officials) that it was very clear in various declarations. They speak of greater Israel. There is a political ambition behind everything, not for everyone, you know, the members of the army (Israeli military) and so on, but I think a significant proportion.
(They) obviously adhere to this principle that they want to see Gaza suffered the card, and yes, they would like it to be restored as a Riviera complex of the Trump Empire.
He went beyond the plausible.
(Note: The International Court of Justice said in January 2024 that it was plausible that Israel made a genocide in Gaza.)
Tel Aviv Tribune: How will the world go back on this moment in history?
Mansfield: I hope this will cause a change in a kind in the hearts and minds of people.
World leaders have the right to do something, and I think our own Prime Minister (British Prime Minister Keir Starmer) should do more than it does.
Originally, we (the United Kingdom) oppose the issue of arrest terms. However, it was the previous government (preservative) and when the starmer (work) was elected, it changed this. He withdrew his objections on behalf of the United Kingdom, so it was a step in the right direction.
I think we are going to look back and say, in fact, thousands of people are revealed for the steps. Thousands of people are worldwide, upset and feel desperate, which is why keeping the law alive in the way in which chief prosecutors have tried to do not only for Israel, but also for other authors, including (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Russia and Ukraine.
We have to keep the care alive. You can’t get away from it. You can’t hide in your room and think: “Oh, I didn’t start that.” No, you didn’t do it, but if you are a member of the human race, I’m afraid that you have a responsibility.
If I do not spend every hour of watch to try to keep what the others installed first (the rule of law), I think I will have failed.
You cannot get away from that and hope that it will explode because, that’s what politicians hope, that we will all abandon. I think it is (on) to create a public opinion, so that politicians realize that there is nowhere to go because they are not supported.
You must log in, get started and then do as much as you can. That’s all we can expect. Once you have done this, you will find hundreds and thousands of others who do the same, then finally politicians say: “Oh, it’s true, there are votes here. We will do better to do the right thing. ”
It is all the time to move opinion and keep the flame alive.
Tel Aviv Tribune: How would you summarize the current atrocities?
Mansfield: I would describe it as a mass assault and a destruction of humanity. This does not worsen that.
Tel Aviv Tribune: You worked on high-level affairs, such as the representation of Stephen Lawrence’s family, the British black teenager stabbed to a racist attack in a racist attack, and the Birmingham Six, the Irish group wrongly arrested for bombing in 1974. What binds the work you did together?
Mansfield: It is the effect and impact on a community. Now, the Lawrence affair, as it turned out and as it was at the time, had a huge impact on a community. This was a much more important problem than, you know, Stephen Lawrence’s stab wounds, which was horrible.
Although it is not on your television screens like Gaza and you did not see the destruction of the genre you see in Gaza, it had a similar effect on people.
And there were other cases like that. It is not a question if it is only one individual or thousands. This is the impact on the principle of equity.
Note: This interview has been modified for more clarity and conciseness.