The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant because it states there are reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between Israel and Hamas.
This is shocking and regrettable, but I believe it is inevitable given the Netanyahu Government’s conduct in its response to the appalling Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th last year.
I am someone who strongly supports the State of Israel and Israel’s right to self-defence. But Israel’s response in Gaza has left its friends aching with concern.
Conservative figures from Oxfam show that more than 6,000 women and 11,000 children were killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the last 12 months.
That’s more women and children killed than in the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades. The ICC makes clear the heart of its case against Israel’s leaders relates to the supply of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
And 60 per cent of British people according to the latest polling say Israel’s military action in Gaza has gone too far. And 73 per cent support an immediate ceasefire, as does our government. Which brings us to the ICC. And here I declare some knowledge and interest.
As a Foreign Office Minister, I oversaw our joining the ICC, and I attended the opening of the ICC in the Hague. The ICC was established because, without an international criminal court for dealing with individual responsibility as an enforcement mechanism, acts of genocide and egregious violations of human rights often went unpunished. Witness the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the genocide in Rwanda.
So, I believe the ICC has been a force for good, and the Israeli Government had the opportunity to see off the ICC before it came to this.
As the Journalist Jonathon Friedland, a strong supporter of Israel, has argued, “Ask why the ICC didn’t go after the UK for suspected war crimes in Iraq or the US on similar charges in Afghanistan, and you’ll be told that the ICC stays out of countries that have their own, reliable systems of justice”.
And “For Israel, the simplest solution would have been the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the Hamas attacks on October 7th 2023 and all that has followed”. Something many, many Israelis have been calling for.
It is difficult not to conclude that Israel did not do this because it was not in Netanyahu’s personal and political interest.
So, how should the UK respond?
We are a signatory to ICC. The Tories did not repeal that in 14 years in Government. We have a legal duty to comply with the arrest warrant, which is a tragic demonstration of how isolated Israel has made itself.
Ignoring Netanyahu’s arrest warrant would be a slippery slope, but I now fear for the hostages – Bill RammellKier Starmer believes to his credit in the rule of law. Number 10 has indicated that the government will “fulfil its legal obligations”.
I believe this is the right approach. The alternative is the approach of the demagogue Victor Oben in Hungary, who says he would effectively rip up Hungary’s legal obligations to the ICC and welcome Netanyahu to Hungary.
When politicians ignore the rule of law, it is a dangerous slippery slope where our rights and freedoms are ultimately at risk.
Yet I worry that issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant will not bring us closer to a ceasefire, the return of the hostages and the start of a political process which is desperately needed.
For that, whatever happens through the ICC, we need continued pressure internationally to end the deaths, return the hostages and find a way forward politically.