Clare Short at risk of arrest in Israel, warns defence minister Moshe Ya’alon

Clare Short

British newspaper The Independent has reported that former British International Development Secretary Clare Short could be arrested the next time she lands in Tel Aviv, after the pro-terrorist organization she is a director of was declared an "illicit organisation" by Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Tuesday.

Yaalon, a former IDF chief of staff, outlawed the Council for European Palestinian Relations (CEPR) – a Belgian non-profit organization that lobbies on behalf of the Hamas-led Gaza government – using emergency defense regulations.

CEPR Members also include Labor MEP Richard Howitt, a member of the House of Lords and two other European MPs who are now in danger of prosecution if they land at Ben Gurion International Airport.

Short, who chairs CEPR's Board of Trustees, said she was unsurprised by the decision. 

She told The Independent: “As CEPR is Palestinian led, and given Israel’s track record, the Defense Minister’s action is not surprising, but it is yet more evidence that Israel’s claim to be a democracy is eroding very fast.”

In 2009, Yaalon turned down an invitation to visit Britain after he was warned he might face arrest on suspicion of war crimes.

He had been invited by the Jewish National Fund to an event in London to raise money for a group that supports Israeli lone soldiers – who have no family in Israel.

Israeli subversive groups and other global leftist organizations cooperate in an ongoing campaign to put Israeli officers and politicians on trial if they visit abroad.