U.K. government to comply with ICC arrest warrant against war criminal Netanyahu if he sets foot on British soil

The United Kingdom has recently confirmed that its government will comply with the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, should they set foot on British soil.

On Thursday, Nov. 21, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration refused to comment on whether it would allow the arrest of Netanyahu in the United Kingdom. But the next day, Starmer’s spokesperson said: “The U.K. will always comply with its legal obligations as set out by domestic law and indeed international law.”

Palestinian Ambassador to the U.K. Husam Zomlot told Middle East Eye that they welcome the announcement by the U.K. government that it supports and respects the independence of the ICC and would comply with the Netanyahu government arrest warrants.

“All member states of the ICC have clearly mandated obligations,” Zumlot added. “It’s a clearly mandated obligation to uphold and preserve international law.” He further commented that supporting the independence of the ICC is the floor, not the ceiling, of the U.K.’s responsibilities as a member state, let alone its historic responsibility for the plight of the Palestinian people.

“And adherence to international law cannot be selective and must not be politicized,” he pointed out. “This also includes adhering to the ICJ advisory opinion whereby all dealings with any organization, competent individual or body that support Israel’s illegal practices in occupied territory must cease immediately.”

In 2001, Tony Blair’s Labour government passed the ICC Act, which enforces compliance with the court. There is a domestic legal process through which Britain’s independent courts determine whether to endorse the warrant following the said act. Starmer’s spokesperson seemed to have referred to this process in his statement.

In line with this, opposition politicians have also called on the government to go further and cease trade relations with Israel. Independent MP Ayoub Khan said that Britain must immediately halt all assistance to the Israeli government, including the sharing of intelligence from British surveillance flights over Gaza. Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said the warrants “make clear that to continue selling arms to Israel is to aid and abet war crimes.”

Similarly, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell agreed with the decision of the court, saying that it has to be respected and implemented. The Dutch foreign minister said, “We will act on the arrest warrants” and Italy said it would support the Court, which should “play a legal role and not a political role.” The German chancellor’s spokesman said Berlin had “unique relations with a great responsibility for Israel” and further action would only be taken when a stay by Netanyahu and Gallant was “foreseeable.”

On the other hand, two of Israel’s closest allies in the EU rejected the ICC’s decision. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he would invite Netanyahu to visit and “guarantee him that if he comes, the ICC’s ruling will have no effect in Hungary.”

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the court had made “an unfortunate decision” in equating “the elected representatives of a democratic state with the leaders of an Islamist terrorist organization.”

Biden calls issuance of arrest warrant by the ICC “outrageous”

Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden has called the ICC arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister’s war crimes in the Middle East “outrageous.”

“Whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security,” Biden said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Israel rejected the allegations made by the ICC, with Netanyahu saying “The antisemitic decision of the international court in The Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way.”

He added that the ICC accused Israel of a deliberate policy of starvation. But he claimed that this was when they supplied Gaza with 700,000 tons of food to feed the people of Gaza.

“We issued millions of text messages, phone calls, leaflets to the citizens of Gaza to get them out of harm’s way — while the Hamas terrorists do everything in their power to keep them in harm’s way, including shooting them, using them as human shields,” he further claimed, arguing that Israel would “not recognize the validity” of the ICC’s decision.

Also, Israel denies the allegation that its forces are committing genocide in Gaza, which is the subject of a separate case before the ICC.

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert mirrored Netanyahu’s “sentiment.” Olmert said that while he was critical of Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict with Hamas, he did not agree with the ICC’s decision.

“Israel has not committed genocide or war crimes that deserve these charges against the prime minister and the minister of defense,” Olmert told Radio 4‘s “World Tonight.”

The impact of the warrants announced by the ICC will depend on whether the court’s 124 member states — which do not include Israel or its ally, the U.S. — decide to enforce them or not. (Related: Full list of 124 countries that must arrest Netanyahu for the ICC.)

Read more stories related to the ICC’s decision on Israel’s war crimes committed in the Middle East on IsraelCollapse.com.

Sources for this article include:

MiddleEastEye.net

BBC.com