David Vance SubstackRead More
Did you see that that the utterly ludicrous and discredited International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and the head of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif (whose death was reported by Israel in July), for war crimes and crimes against humanity!
Now leaving aside the technical impossibility of arresting Deif who is DEAD ffs this raises the prospect of what would happen if the Israeli PM Netanyahu paid a visit to the UK. Our Labour Government seems a little confused as to what would happen.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the ICC, which the UK is a member of, is independent and while the government respects that, it “wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment” on the processes involved.
“We’ve always respected the importance of international law, but in the majority of the cases that they pursue, they don’t become part of the British legal process. What I can say is that obviously, the UK government’s position remains that we believe the focus should be on getting a ceasefire in Gaza.”
So Cooper entirely evades the question.
However, Emily Thornberry, Labour chair of the foreign affairs committee in parliament, is more direct:
“If Netanyahu comes to Britain, our obligation under the Rome Convention would be to arrest him under the warrant from the ICC.”
Wouldn’t that be interesting? What would Israel DO if their elected Leader was arrested by the UK Government? We know that Israel is not shy when it comes to defending itself and it seems to me that Starmer would be putting the safety of the British people in peril IF he seized Netanyahu.
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