Israel hits out at Starmer for dropping Britain's challenge to international arrest warrant for Netanyahu
26 July 2024, 19:25
Israel has criticised Britain for dropping its challenge to an international arrest warrant issued for Benjamin Netanyahu.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
A spokesperson for the Israeli government said that Labour had made a "fundamentally wrong decision" in deciding not to pursue the challenge at the International Criminal Court.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan in May requested arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Mr Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza.
Rishi Sunak's government had told the ICC it intended to submit arguments questioning whether the ICC had the right to order the arrest of Israeli nationals.
The Hague-based war crimes court gave the UK until Friday to decide whether it would do so.
A spokesperson for the new Labour government said on Friday that it would not submit an objection.
"This was a proposal by the previous government which was not submitted before the election, and which I can confirm the government will not be pursuing in line with our long standing position that this is a matter for the court to decide on," the spokesperson said.
They added that the government believes in the separation of powers and the rule of law - both in the UK and internationally.
"I think you would note that the courts have already received a number of submissions on either side, so they are well seized of the arguments to make their independent determinations," they said.
The war in Gaza has been a major issue for Labour, and its attitude in the early months of the conflict saw it lose support among some Muslim communities.
The party appears to have sought to remedy this in recent months, and also since winning the election.
Since entering government, Labour has restored funding to the United Nations' Palestine relief agency UNRWA, in a major shift from the stance of the previous government which had suspended funding in January.
Sir Keir has also stressed that a Palestinian state has an "undeniable right" to be recognised as part of a Middle East peace process.
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK's chief executive, said: "This was a totally misguided intervention by the last government and we strongly welcome the decision to drop it.
Human Rights Watch: 'The UK needs to be using every leverage that it has against Israel to stop this'
"Instead of trying to thwart the ICC's much-needed Palestine investigation, the UK should be backing efforts to bring all perpetrators of war crimes and possible genocide to justice."
Hannah Bond, co-chief executive of ActionAid UK, said: "We're pleased to see the new government abandon the legal challenge to the International Criminal Court's case.
"The court must be free to pursue the course of justice unhindered and the UK government must support it in doing so, as well as respect and comply with whatever the ultimate outcome of the case may be."
But Labour Friends of Israel described the Government's move as "deeply disappointing".
In a statement on X, the group said "there is no reason to believe" that Israel's courts would not investigate this case and the ICC chief prosecutor "has chosen quite deliberately not to provide it (Israel) with that opportunity".
"The British Government's desire to defend international law is laudable but its decision today is deeply disappointing and will not advance that goal," the group added.
