The news
The UK’s new Labour government will abandon its opposition to the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallantthe prime minister’s spokesman said on Friday.
They added that the government had not “withdrawn” the challenge, but had instead decided not to proceed with “a proposal from the previous government” that had not been formally submitted to the ICC, the Financial Times reported.
After the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, filed a request in May to issue arrest warrants for both Israeli politicians and senior Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes, a then-Conservative foreign minister said: “We do not believe the ICC has jurisdiction in this case, the UK has not recognised Palestine as a state and Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute.”
Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that the UK would restore funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
