{"id":302703,"date":"2025-01-30T07:04:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T07:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=302703"},"modified":"2025-02-01T08:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T08:22:22","slug":"israeli-general-on-secret-trip-to-london-questioned-over-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=302703","title":{"rendered":"Israeli general on secret trip to London questioned over war crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Major General Oded Basyuk (right) faces questions about war crimes on his trip to London, 22 January 2025.<\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>John McEvoy and Alex Morris \u2013 Declassified UK Jan 22, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>An Israeli military delegation led by Major General Oded Basyuk visited Britain\u2019s Ministry of Defence (MoD) today, <em>Declassified<\/em> can reveal.<\/p>\n<p>Basyuk is the head of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Operations Directorate, which is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idf.il\/en\/mini-sites\/directorates\/operations-directorate\/operations-directorate\/\">responsible<\/a> for preparing the Israeli military for war.<\/p>\n<p>The unit works alongside the IDF\u2019s regional commands as well as the air force and navy.<\/p>\n<p>Basyuk was on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/liveblog_entry\/idf-chief-visits-site-of-sinwars-killing-says-army-didnt-have-intel-hamas-chief-was-there\/\">ground<\/a> in Gaza during Israel\u2019s most recent onslaught and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ynetnews.com\/article\/bjpj7ljlr\">presided<\/a> over decision-making on last year\u2019s offensive in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n<p><em>Declassified<\/em> spotted Basyuk outside the MoD and questioned him about the International Criminal Court (ICC) case against Israeli officials.<\/p>\n<p>Basyuk was asked: \u201cAre you worried about the ICC investigating you for war crimes? Are you a war criminal?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He did not respond and was rushed by aides into a nearby building.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>Watch the moment General Basyuk was caught on camera<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rbb1RdnTZBE?si=nNolJty5L4mvl-y0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Basyuk was joined in London by Brigadier General Elad Goren, who is coordinating the \u201chumanitarian effort\u201d in Gaza, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.israeldefense.co.il\/en\/node\/38658\">intelligence<\/a> officer Lieutenant Colonel Yuval Litvin, and five other military officials.<\/p>\n<p><em>Declassified<\/em> understands that the Israeli delegation gave the British military a security briefing on the ceasefire and what happens if it breaks down.<\/p>\n<p>An MoD spokesman said: \u201cAs part of the concerted UK effort to reduce the risk of escalation in the Middle East and to achieve a peaceful resolution \u2013 following ceasefires \u2013 in Gaza and Lebanon, the MoD hosted counterparts from Israel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDiscussions included the UK calls to implement all phases of the ceasefire deal in full and establish a pathway to lasting peace and security for the region.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arms trade expert Andrew Feinstein told <em>Declassified<\/em>: \u201cThe UK\u2019s ongoing support for the Israeli military \u2013 using our tax pounds \u2013 while it has been committing a probable genocide, according to the highest court in the world, is indefensible and appalling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must demand that the government inform the UK whether any member of the delegation is wanted for violations of international law, war crimes or crimes against humanity anywhere in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>UK-Israel military collaboration<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The visit highlights the ongoing high-level military collaboration between the UK and Israel, despite Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu being pursued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n<p>Keir Starmer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/pm-call-with-prime-minister-netanyahu-of-israel-21-january-2025\">spoke<\/a> over the phone with Netanyahu yesterday, with both politicians agreeing to continue \u201cclose co-operation on defence and security matters\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>According to Downing Street, the goal of this cooperation is to support \u201cwider stability in the region \u2013 particularly in the face of the ongoing threat posed by Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Netanyahu\u2019s office recounted a different version of events.<\/p>\n<p>It <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/IsraeliPM\/status\/1881687301065154963\">said<\/a> the Israeli prime minister \u201craised the issue of the weapons export licences to Israel that have been frozen in the UK\u201d, with Starmer responding \u201cthat an evaluation of the issue is being carried out\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This raises the prospect that the UK government will resume lethal arms exports to Israel should the ceasefire hold.<\/p>\n<p>Israel\u2019s former chief of staff Herzi Halevi also quietly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/israeli-army-chief-given-special-immunity-to-visit-britain\/\">visited<\/a> Britain in November to discuss \u201cthe ongoing conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza\u201d with senior UK officials from the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office.<\/p>\n<p>The UK government provided Halevi with \u201cspecial mission\u201d immunity for the visit, granting him temporary diplomatic immunity from possible arrest for war crimes.<\/p>\n<p>It is probable that Basyuk and his delegation were also granted \u201cspecial mission\u201d immunity for today\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Operations Directorate<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Ministry of Defence has a longstanding record of cooperation with Israel\u2019s Operations Directorate.<\/p>\n<p><em>Declassified<\/em> recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/uk-psychological-warfare-unit-collaborated-with-israeli-army\/\">revealed<\/a> how a high-level information exchange between the Operations Directorate and the British army was arranged in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The goal was for an Operations Directorate information operations (IO) team to be familiarised with Britain\u2019s \u201cmanagement, planning, and conduct of IO operations from the strategic to tactical level\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>A two-day programme for a visiting IDF team was subsequently developed, which would be split between the MoD\u2019s headquarters in Whitehall and the British army\u2019s 77th brigade\u2019s barracks in Berkshire.<\/p>\n<p>The 77th brigade uses\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-31070114\">psychological operations<\/a>\u00a0and social media to help fight wars \u201cin the information age\u201d. It\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2018\/dec\/02\/russian-journalist-seen-behaving-suspiciously-at-uk-military-base\">specialises in<\/a>\u00a0\u201cnon-lethal forms of psychological warfare\u201d such as cyber-attacks, propaganda activities, and counter-insurgency operations online.<\/p>\n<p>Though this trip was cancelled, the leaked Israeli military documents demonstrate how cooperation between the IDF and the 77th brigade continued through 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n<p><em>Declassified <\/em>also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/britains-secret-defence-plan-with-israel\/\">revealed<\/a> how the UK government developed a secret defence plan with Israel codenamed Project HEZUK in 2019-20.<\/p>\n<p>The project\u2019s goal was to counter the \u201cdestabilising regional activity of Iran and Hizballah\u201d through enhanced UK-Israel intelligence collaboration and increasing military cooperation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/israeli-general-on-secret-trip-to-london-questioned-over-war-crimes\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What were a group of senior Israeli military commanders, led by the chief of Israel Defence Forces Operations Directorate, doing at the Ministry of Defence in London recently?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":302704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=302703"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302706,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302703\/revisions\/302706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/302704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=302703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=302703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=302703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}