UK government drops challenge to ICC arrest warrant for Israeli leaders

The News

The UK’s new Labour government will abandon its opposition to the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the prime minister’s spokesperson said Friday.

They added that the government had not “withdrawn” the challenge but instead decided to not proceed with “a proposal by the previous government,” which had not been formally submitted to the ICC, the Financial Times reported.

After ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants against both Israeli politicians and senior Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes in May, a then-foreign office minister from the Conservative Party said: “We do not think the ICC has jurisdiction in this case, the UK has not recognised Palestine as a state and Israel is not party to the Rome Statute.”

Separately, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced earlier this month that the UK would restore funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.