We’re now closing this blog. My colleague Chris Stein in the US will be following the latest news and reaction on the ICC prosecutor’s decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and some Israeli ministers in his US politics blog here:
Deputy foreign minister Andrew Mitchell will be asked to explain further on Tuesday when he appears in front of the business committee that is examining the UK decision to continue to sell arms to Israel on the basis that it is not in breach of international humanitarian law.
Karim Khan, the ICC prosecutor, was the enthusiastically backed British government candidate for the post in 2021 and it was regarded as a diplomatic coup for the government to see him elected.
Moreover, it is striking that Khan has been advised in making his decision by a panel of distinguished lawyers – almost all of whom are British.
The government has refused to publish the legal advice that has led them to conclude Israel has not committed a breach of international humanitarian law, but the UK response to the ICC prosecutor’s request is not based on that law but on the disputed issue of ICC jurisdiction.
When the ICC first claimed jurisdiction over Israel’s actions, the then prime minister Boris Johnson said he opposed the ICC’s actions as an attack on Israel. In a letter to Conservative Friends of Israel he said the ICC’s action “gives the impression of being a partial and prejudicial attack on a friend and ally of the UK’s”. He said Palestine was not a recognised state.
In November 2023,Mitchell appeared to draw back from Johnson’s stance telling MPs: “It is not for ministers to seek to state where the ICC has jurisdiction; that is for the chief prosecutor. The chief prosecutor has not been silent on this matter, and I am sure he will continue to express his views.” At a different point he said: “It is not for me to fetter or speak in the place of its chief prosecutor.”
Labour supports the right of the ICC to seek warrants.
The ICC says it may exercise its jurisdiction in situations where the alleged perpetrator is a national of a State Party or where the crime was committed in the territory of a State Party. It ruled in 2021 it had jurisdiction in the Occupied Territories.
