UK won’t challenge ICC arrest warrant request for Netanyahu, Gallant

The United Kingdom has said it will not proceed with efforts to question whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

“On the ICC submission … I can confirm the government will not be pursuing [the proposal] in line with our longstanding position that this is a matter for the court to decide on,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters on Friday.

The decision puts distance between Starmer’s new Labour government and the plans of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who had planned to challenge the warrant.

In May, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes committed during Israel’s war on Gaza.

He also sought warrants for three leaders of the Palestinian group Hamas over alleged war crimes committed during the October 7 attacks on southern Israel.

Court documents made public in June showed the UK, an ICC member state, had filed a request with the court to provide written observations on whether “the court can exercise jurisdiction over Israeli nationals, in circumstances where Palestine cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals [under] the Oslo Accords”.

The government of then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had managed to gain court approval to submit arguments before the July 4 general elections, which the Conservatives lost.

The ICC first gave the government time until July 12 to file a legal opinion, which was extended to July 26.

Since winning a landslide victory three weeks ago, the Labour Party and its new government have announced a series of shifts from the policies of the previous administration.

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said the decision by the UK government signals that they “understand that supporting Israel is not the same as supporting this reckless war criminal called Netanyahu”.

He said that it would not make sense for Starmer and his party to tie their “political future, credibility and standing in the Middle East and the rest of the world” by coupling their “policy to that of a war criminal”.

Shortly after the government announcement, Zarah Sultana, a Labour MP, 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”.

“Next, the government needs to ban ALL arms sales to Israel, not just some”.