ASHKENAZI CHIEF RABBI LAU CONDEMNS BELGIUM SUPREME COURT DECISION AS
PRETENTIOUS AND HYPOCRITICAL.
(Communicated by the Chief Rabbinate Spokesman)

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Following are Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau comments on
Belgium's Supreme Court's decision to allow Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
to be tried for war crimes.

"The thought that a nation which stood by and watched when Jewish blood
was spilt like water and ignored victims' cries, is now elevating itself
in the position of world policeman is outrageous in the extreme. It is
regretful that a State which remained quiet at a time when it should
have been screaming out in the name of humanity, is now expressing
itself with such a pretentious and hypocritical voice, in order to cast
fault on IDF soldiers and its commanders, who have endangered their own
lives many times in order to refrain from injuring innocent civilians,
and in order to denigrate the behaviour of a democratic, sovereign
State."