The family of James Miller, the Devon film-maker killed in Gaza, yesterday urged Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to take a decision on his case and prosecute those responsible.
Miller was shot dead by a soldier from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) four years ago, May 2,2003, while filming a refugee camp.
An Israeli inquiry cleared the soldier of firearms misuse but a British inquest later ruled Miller was murdered.
In a statement released yesterday to mark the fourth anniversary of James Miller’s death, his family condemned the delay.
The family statement said: ‘The undue delay in the length of time the Israeli authorities have taken to acknowledge responsibility when a crime is known to have been committed is utterly shameful and a disgrace.
‘We look to the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to make public his decision on James’s case and to proceed with prosecutions of those responsible, in the UK.’
A spokesman for Goldsmith responded to the family’s request by saying that more information on the case was still being gathered.
The spokesman added that Goldsmith was continuing to consider whether any prosecution could be brought under the Geneva Conventions Act 1957.
British Attorney General Goldsmith began a fact-finding mission into the death last year to see if there was enough evidence to bring war crimes charges against the IDF soldier.
Miller had been making a film about Palestinian children in the Rafah refugee camp.
The 34-year-old was trying to ask the soldiers if it was safe to leave the area when he was fatally wounded in the neck by an Israeli sniper.
An inquest jury in London in April 2006 found the film-maker had been deliberately shot and returned a verdict of unlawful killing.
An Israeli investigation in April 2005 cleared First Lt Heib of misusing firearms.
Israeli military prosecutors have said no further prosecutions will take place without fresh evidence.
• Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni yesterday called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign in the wake of a report critical of his handling of last year’s war in Lebanon.
Livni said she would not try to oust Olmert, but that she would stand as a candidate to replace him.
Livni, who was a founder member of Olmert’s Kadima party when it was formed by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, also serves as deputy prime minister.
She told a news conference that she would not resign from the cabinet.
Livni insisted: ‘It’s not a personal matter between me and the prime minister, this issue is more important than both of us.’
She said the Kadima party should stay in government, cautioning against a snap election.
Livni spoke after meeting Mr Olmert face-to-face to discuss the findings of the Winograd commission into the 34-day war.
Earlier, Kadima parliamentary faction chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki was confident that nearly the entire faction would support an effort to overthrow Olmert.
Yitzhaki told Israeli MPs: ‘I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be happy if he quit, including the people closest to him.
‘Everyone realises that Olmert staying in power is not good for Kadima or the country. The question is how to convince him to leave.’
