UK will comply with the international court's warrant to arrest Netanyahu

UK will comply with the international court’s warrant to arrest Netanyahu

The UK will comply with the international court’s warrant to arrest Netanyahu.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and the military commander of Hamas on charges of committing war crimes in Gaza.

The court panel said it understands “there are reasonable grounds to believe” Netanyahu and his former minister “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity”.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reportedly backed the ICC, with a Downing Street spokesman saying it was “the primary international institution for investigating and prosecuting the most serious crimes of international concern”.

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The spokesman later said the government would “fulfil its legal obligations” in relation to the arrest warrant.

“The UK will always comply with its legal obligations as set out by domestic law, and indeed international law,” he said.

He added the domestic process linked to ICC arrest warrants has never been used to date by the UK because the country has never been visited by anyone wanted by the international court.

Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee in parliament, told Sky News: “If Netanyahu comes to Britain, our obligation under the Rome Convention would be to arrest him under the warrant from the ICC.

“Not really a question of ‘should’; we are required to because we are members of the ICC.”

Netanyahu himself has condemned the ICC’s decision, saying it was “antisemitic”. Quelle surprise!

Calling something anti-Semitic is the Israeli government’s answer to any international decision that goes against it. An arrest warrant against Netanyahu for war crimes cannot be anti-Semitic because it focuses on an individual – the Israeli PM – and not the Jewish people as a whole.

Still, Netanyahu has been supported by US President Joe Biden, who called the ICC’s decision “outrageous”.

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

This Writer certainly hopes that the government of any country that is a signed-up member of the ICC will take its obligations seriously and arrest Netanyahu if he enters territory over which they have jurisdiction.

He and his government should be made to account for themselves. In the estimation of many, they have brought Israel – and the Jewish people – to shame.


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