The new British government said on Friday it had dropped an inquiry requested by the previous government into whether the International Criminal Court had jurisdiction to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The ICC prosecutor in May requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on suspicion of war crimes, angering Israel and upsetting its closest ally the United States. He also requested similar warrants for three leaders of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
Britain, a member state of the ICC, has asked the court to allow it to submit legal observations on whether the ICC can exercise jurisdiction over Israelis “in circumstances where Palestine cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction over Israeli citizens (under) the Oslo Accords.”
But then the centre-left Labour Party ousted the Conservatives from power in a general election, and a spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters the new government would drop the inquiry “in line with our long-standing position that this is a matter for the courts to decide”.
He added, “The government strongly believes in the rule of law, whether at the international or local level, and in the separation of powers.”
While the Conservatives have repeatedly railed against extraterritorial jurisdictions during their 14 years in power, particularly the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights, Starmer, a former lawyer, has struck a different tone.
Last week, he told European leaders that his government would show “strict respect for international law.”
The International Criminal Court, which deals with war crimes and crimes against humanity, has been investigating both sides of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians since 2021.
That year, the ICC ruled that it had jurisdiction following the Palestinian authorities’ accession to the court in 2015, after they were granted observer status at the United Nations.
Some jurists and member states said the decision postponed a decision on the interpretation of the 1993 Oslo Accords on Palestinian jurisdiction over Israeli citizens to a later stage of the proceedings.
The UK’s decision to drop the legal action is unlikely to speed up the ICC case as more than 60 interested states and parties have also been allowed to present their legal arguments to judges considering the request to issue arrest warrants for senior officials from Israel and Hamas.
Source: Reuters
