The new Labour government says it will not seek to raise questions about the jurisdiction of the ICC.
The UK has said it will not go ahead with efforts to question whether the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
“With regard to submitting an application to the International Criminal Court… I can confirm that the government will not seek to do so. [the proposal] “In line with our long-standing position that this is a matter for the court to decide,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman told reporters on Friday.
The decision puts a distance between the new Labour government led by Starmer and the plans of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had planned to defy the arrest order.
Last May, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, filed a request to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Galant on charges of alleged war crimes during Israel’s war on Gaza.
He also sought arrest warrants for three leaders of the Palestinian Hamas movement for alleged war crimes during the October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
Court documents unsealed in June showed that the UK, an ICC member state, had asked the court to submit written observations on whether “the Court can exercise jurisdiction over Israeli nationals, in circumstances where Palestine cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals.” [under] “Oslo Accords”.
Then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government was able to get court approval to present arguments before the general election on July 4, which the Conservatives lost.
The ICC initially gave the government until July 12 to submit a legal opinion, a deadline that was extended until July 26.
Since winning a landslide victory three weeks ago, Labour and its new government have announced a series of shifts from the policies of the previous administration.
Marwan Bishara, a prominent political analyst at Al Jazeera, said the British government’s decision indicates that it “understands that supporting Israel does not mean supporting a reckless war criminal called Netanyahu.”
He said it would not make sense for Starmer and his party to tie their “political future, their credibility and their standing in the Middle East and the rest of the world” to linking “their policy to that of a war criminal”.
Shortly after the government’s announcement, Labour MP Zahra Sultana wrote on X: “Supporting the ICC in its pursuit of arrest warrants is an important step in the fight against impunity for war crimes committed in Gaza.”
“The next step is for the government to ban all arms sales to Israel, not just some.”
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