(Jerusalem Post Jan 5, 2010 ) Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon met with Britain's Attorney-General Baroness Scotland of Asthal in Jerusalem on Tuesday, to discuss the issue of changing UK law to prevent the arrest of Israeli officials and officers.

During the meeting, Baroness Scotland said that she is aware of the importance that Israel attributes to finding an urgent solution to this problem, and that the British are currently considering different courses of action aimed at solving the problem.

Ayalon called the current situation "insufferable," and said, "This will make it difficult for the two countries to maintain a normal relationship."

The deputy foreign minister also bewailed the manipulation that organizations hostile to Israel were making of British law to carry out their goals. He stressed that most Israeli citizens - not just political figures and high-ranking officers - serve in the IDF. It goes against Britain's best interests, he said, to deter Israelis from visiting the country.

Shortly before the meeting it was revealed that a delegation of IDF officers canceled a planned visit to the UK last week, after the British hosts failed to guarantee that arrest warrants would not be issued against the invitees.  Read full story at source

29 December 2009 UN News Center – The United Nations independent expert on Palestinian rights has again called for a threat of economic sanctions against Israel to force it to lift its blockade of Gaza, which is preventing the return to a normal life for 1.5 million residents after the devastating Israeli offensive a year ago.

“Obviously Israel does not respond to language of diplomacy, which has encouraged the lifting of the blockade and so what I am suggesting is that it has to be reinforced by a threat of adverse economic consequences for Israel,” Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, told UN Radio.