New British govt. bends, drops plan to challenge ICC over Netanyahu arrest warrant

Britain’s new government says it will drop its predecessor’s challenge to arrest warrants sought by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor for the Israeli entity’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Downing Street announced on Friday.

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak's government had told the ICC it intended to submit a query of the court’s jurisdiction to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested in May for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his Israeli minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

If granted by ICC judges, any of the 124 ICC member states would technically be obliged to arrest Netanyahu and others if they traveled there.

Britain, an ICC member state, had asked the court to be allowed to file legal observations on whether the ICC could exercise jurisdiction over Israelis "in circumstances where Palestine cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals (under) the Oslo Accords".

The UK had until Friday to submit its questions to the court in The Hague, but the recently elected Labour government has confirmed it will not follow through with Sunak's plan.

"This was a proposal by the previous government which was not submitted before the election, and which I can confirm the government will not be pursuing in line with our long standing position that this is a matter for the court to decide on", a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

"I think you would note that the courts have already received a number of submissions on either side, so they are well seized of the arguments to make their independent determinations," she added.

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Labor under former human rights lawyer Keir Starmer swept to power on July 4, defeating the conservatives in a landslide general election win.

It has since announced the resumption of funding for the main UN agency for Palestinian refugees that had been paused under Sunak after Israeli allegations that several UNRWA members took part in the October 7 Hamas operation against the Zionist entity.

Labour wants an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza and the release of hostages.

The United States is still set to challenge the court's authority to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu.

The ICC, which handles war crimes and crimes against humanity, has been investigating both sides in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians since 2021.

In that year, the ICC ruled that it did have jurisdiction after Palestinian authorities signed up to the court in 2015, having been made a United Nations observer state.

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