LABOUR have dropped the previous government’s objection to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) application for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Friday, a No 10 spokeswoman confirmed that the Government would not be lodging an objection, following significant pressure from independent MPs to drop the legal challenge.
A group of five independent MPs, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, wrote to Foreign Secretary David Lammy last week, calling for the Government to drop the objection.
The SNP have also placed pressure on the Foreign Secretary, with Dave Doogan – MP for Angus and Perthshire Glens – writing a letter on Sunday calling on Lammy to “immediately” halt arms sales to Israel.
The ICC is the United Nation’s (UN) top court. Based in the Hague, it is focused on the prosecution of war crimes.
In May, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for both the Israeli Prime Minister and defence minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s war in Gaza, which has so far killed more than 39,000 Palestinians since October 7.
Rishi Sunak’s government had told the ICC it intended to submit arguments questioning whether the ICC had the right to order the arrest of Israeli nationals.
There have been questions over whether Labour would pursue the same action, with the ICC giving the UK until Friday to decide whether it would do so.
Labour have also restored funding to UNRWA, the UN’s Palestine relief agency, after the previous Conservative government halted funding in January over allegations several agency workers were connected to Hamas.
Starmer’s initial refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza cost his party votes and seats in the General Election, with a number of pro-Palestine independent candidates taking seats from Labour MPs.
Responding to the news that the UK will not be challenging the ICC’s application for arrest warrants, Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, said: “This was a totally misguided intervention by the last government and we strongly welcome the decision to drop it.
“Instead of trying to thwart the ICC’s much-needed Palestine investigation, the UK should be backing efforts to bring all perpetrators of war crimes and possible genocide to justice.”
