News / Politics

UK politician calls for prosecution of UK soldiers in Israel army

Wednesday, 29 March 2017 4:13 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 29 March 2017 6:41 PM ]

This file image shows Britain's former senior minister and minister for faith & communities, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, speaking at the 21st Annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC 2014) in Manama, Bahrain, on December 2, 2014. (Photo by AFP)

A former British lawmaker and cabinet member has called for dozens of British nationals fighting for the Israeli military to be treated as foreign fighters and prosecuted on their return to the UK.

Sayeeda Warsi said in an interview with the Middle East Eye (MEE) on Wednesday that the Israeli regime had committed war crimes and British nationals who volunteered to fight in the Israeli army should be legally prosecuted upon their return to the country.

Warsi, who was born in the UK to Pakistani parents and served as Britain's first female Muslim cabinet minister, slammed the Israeli regime for committing war crimes in the Palestinian territories back when she was part of the UK government from 2010 to 2014.

The Israeli regime killed thousands of Palestinians and injured many more during the 51-day onslaught on the Gaza Strip in 2014.

Read more:

UN rights body condemns Israel over 2014 war on Gaza

Palestinian men clear the rubble of buildings that were destroyed during the 50-day 2014 Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, in the Beit Hanun, northern Gaza, July 3, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

The former foreign office minister and baroness, who resigned her cabinet post over the government’s failure to condemn Israel’s war on Gaza in 2014, said the UK had made little effort for the formal recognition of Palestine as a state.

Palestine, which is a legal sovereign state in the Middle East and is recognized by 136 members of the United Nations, has a status of a non-member observer state in the UN.

“If you go back to statements that [then-foreign secretary] William Hague made, at the time of the recognition of Palestine as a state, the government said not now, maybe in six months' time…. we are four or five years forward. What's changed? The settlements are still being built. There is no formal recognition [of Palestine], the peace process is no further forward. The reality on the ground is changing,” she warned.

Warsi, 45, also criticized British Prime Minister Theresa May for her lack of leadership and failing to integrate British Muslims.

“May’s government is disengaging with British Muslims”, she said, adding that, May lacks the “moral courage and leadership” to run the country.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk