Arab League chief calls for special court to try Israel

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi called on 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.

Delegates to the 22-member Arab bloc based in Cairo are expected to pass a resolution denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge on Sunday that the occupied Golan Heights would remain Israeli “forever”.

Israel occupied the Golan during the 1967 Middle East war with Syria, Egypt and Jordan, and annexed it in 1981, in a move never recognised by the international community.

Israeli media had reported that Mr Netanyahu organised a Cabinet meeting in the Golan — where he made the pledge — amid fears Israel could come under pressure to return the area as part of a future peace deal for its war-torn neighbour.

Israel was acting like “a country that is above the law and accountability”, Mr Arabi told delegates at the start of the meeting.

He demanded “a special criminal court for the Palestinian cause” to try Israel, like the ones set up for Serbian war crimes.

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.