Appointment strains Israel-Denmark ties

By staff at CNN.dk

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Relations between Denmark and Israel have been strained by the appointment of the former head of Israel's internal security service to the post of ambassador-designate to Denmark.

The Danish Justice Minister, social democrat Frank Jensen, confirmed to a parliament committee that Denmark could be forced to arrest former Shin Beth chief Carmi Gillon upon his arrival on Danish soil in August.

The arrest would be on the grounds that the country is committed to the Geneva Convention, under which anyone responsible for torturing prisoners must be arrested.

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Several Danish politicians have said they will not meet Gillon if he is appointed.

In an interview with the daily Jyllands-Posten newspaper, the ambassador-designate admitted that as Shin Beth chief, he ordered moderate pressure in interrogations of suspected terrorists -- and that he would advise Israel to reintroduce those methods.

The U.N. defines moderate pressure as torture.

In the newspaper Berlingske Tidende, Jensen states that Danish legislature is adapted in such a way that Danish courts can proceed against people who have comitted torture in other countries.

And Søren Søndergaard, MP for the leftish Enhedslisten (List of Unity), is preparing to report Gillon to the Danish police in order to get the Gillon prosecuted in Denmark.

Legal experts have been raising doubts wether Gillon could be prosecuted after all because he might be protected by diplomatic immunity.

The Danish justice minister did not comment on that, but stated that the Geneva Convention on Torture does not exempt diplomats from prosecution on torture charges.

The appointment of Carmi Gillon -- who was head of Israel's domestic intelligence agency at the time of the 1995 assassination of then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and recently has been working for the Peres Center for Peace -- was confirmed by the Knesset Tuesday.

Ha'aretz Online on Wednesday quoted Foreign Minister Shimon Peres as saying the arrest of Gillon would be a "foolish" policy of "character assasination" and that it also would compel the Danes to bar entry to nearly all Palestinian officials.

"I am very amazed. I must see this telegram," Peres told Army Radio. "If this is true, then they also cannot accept anyone, for example, who was a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization."

Peres said he would stand by Gillon's candidacy. "I cannot go along with these accusations from the Danish government," he said.

"I cannot accept that a man who served his country at a difficult time, according to the law, and in fact distinguished himself in his relations with Arabs, a man of profound humanitarian understanding, a decent and honest man, will fall victim, to unfortunate rules."

Peres said it was Gillon who pressed for the easing of the torture methods formerly used by the Shin Bet. He said that Gillon was seeking peace, and was considered so by many Palestinian security officials.

On Tuesday, Peres said on a news programme on Danish television, TV-Avisen, that he was very worried about relations with Denmark.

But other Israeli politicians argue Gillon would not be able to do a good job in Denmark after the current tensions -- and The Jerusalem Post has called on Gillon to step down because he has to consider if he can represent his country effectively under these circumstances.

Danish Foreign Minister Mogens Lykketoft has approved Gillon's appointment and has said that it is Israel's own decision who it will send to Denmark as ambassador.