KEIR Starmer has been condemned for his continued silence on the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.
The ICC’s ruling that there are reasonable grounds on which to arrest the Israeli leader – as well as former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas commander Mohammed Deif – for war crimes and crimes against humanity has led to immense pressure on the Labour Government, which is still supplying Israel with arms.
The arrest warrants mean that the UK Government is legally obliged to arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot on British soil – with the Rome Statute from which this obligation springs incorporated into UK domestic law with the International Criminal Court Act 2001.
But the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have remained totally silent on the matter. since the announcement yesterday at noon.
A UK Government statement has since said it “respected the independence” of the ICC but didn’t specify whether the arrest warrant would be complied with if Netanyahu stepped foot on UK soil – a clarification that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also refused to answer in interviews on Friday.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman also said the ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, is “the primary international institution for investigating and prosecuting the most serious crimes of international concern”.
But the spokesman also declined to get into “hypotheticals” when asked on Thursday whether Netanyahu would be arrested if he came to the UK.
Now, Starmer’s silence has been called out with Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie (above) hitting out at the Prime Minister for “moral evasion” and “willing ignorance”.
"The UK Government's response to the announcement entirely fails to give the clarity that’s needed. Any country that respects international law must explicitly commit to respecting yesterday’s decision, and to enforce the arrest warrant,” Harvie said.
"Instead we’re seeing moral evasion and willing ignorance from Keir Starmer and his Government. He is meant to be a human rights lawyer but he has chosen to arm and support a genocide that is being inflicted in plain view and is being done with UK-made weapons.”
The Labour Government previously faced criticism for suspending just 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel – not including the licence for F-35 jet parts.
The Scottish Greens co-leader also highlighted that when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, Starmer was among those calling for the Russian president to face justice.
“But this time he has completely failed to live up to the values he professes to hold,” he said.
"If the Prime Minister and his Cabinet have any interest whatsoever in the rights and lives of Palestinians then they must stop the arms sales, end their complicity in some of the gravest war crimes of our age, and respect the verdict of International Criminal Court by making clear that Netanyahu and other war criminals will be arrested if they set foot in the UK.”
It’s been 24 hours & neither @Keir_Starmer nor @DavidLammy have commented on the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu & Yoav Gallant for war crimes & crimes against humanity. Perhaps they could apply the same standards as the ones they outlined below: pic.twitter.com/lEIPUkmOQv
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) November 22, 2024
Suspended Labour MP Zarah Sultana (above) also hit out at the continued silence.
“It’s been 24 hours and neither Keir Starmer nor David Lammy have commented on the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
She added: “Perhaps they could apply the same standards as the ones they outlined below.”
SNP MSP and former first minister Humza Yousaf also highlighted the continued silence.
"Astonishingly, 24 hours after the ICC issued a number of arrest warrants, there has not been a peep from the Prime Minister or Foreign Secretary on this issue."
