Conservatives write to Starmer to express concern over government’s ICC stance
Joint letter from Priti Patel MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Robert Jenrick MP, Shadow Justice Secretary, claims 'only beneficiaries of ICC decision are Hamas"
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
The Conservatives have written to Keir Starmer to express their concern over the Labour government’s handling of the International Criminal Court decision on arrest warrants for Israel’s policical leaders.
A joint letter from Priti Patel MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Robert Jenrick MP, Shadow Justice Secretary, claims that the “only beneficiaries of this decision are Hamas”.
It then calls on the Prime Minister make clear that the Government will not support the arrest warrants.
It states:” The White House has ‘fundamentally rejected’ the ICC’s decision.
“Not least because this decision will do nothing to help secure the release
hostages, get more aid into Gaza or deliver a sustainable end to the conflict.
“But, by contrast, the UK Government’s response to the decision has been nonsensical.
“On Friday, the Home Secretary refused to say whether Mr Netanyahu would be detained if he travelled to the UK. This opens the farcical spectre of your Government trying to sanction the arrest on UK soil of the leader of an ally of the UK.”
The letter regarding the ICC decision to issue arrest warrants for the State of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and its former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant suggests it “has no proper basis in international law. ”
It adds:”The court was established on the principle of ‘complementarity’, meaning that it was designed to pursue cases in instances where countries do not have robust and independent judiciaries.
“That cannot be said of Israel, which is the only democracy in the Middle East and possessed of one of the most advanced legal systems in the world.
“Indeed, prosecutions on human rights grounds are regularly heard through Israeli courts and leading politicians routinely face trial – and indeed have been imprisoned.
“In failing to recognise this, the ICC’s decision to issue warrants violates its founding principle and displays clear judicial overreach. It is hard to escape the conclusion this is an activist decision, motivated by politics and not the law.”
The Tory duo add that concerns are heightened by reports of serious process errors in the ICC’s investigation.
It has been suggested that Karim Khan KC, the Chief Prosecutor, relied upon Hamas sources, and that “sources from UN bodies whose employees are affiliated with Hamas.”
“Without the ICC making public the specific contents of its charges, it is impossible to scrutinise this. There are deep concerns that his decision has been rushed through,” it continues.
It ends by claiming:”The Government must make clear that it does not support an arrest warrant being issued which has no proper basis in international law.
“If the ICC is to regain any legitimacy, it must act within legal norms and correct this failure of leadership. The UK should lead the diplomatic pressure to bring about this urgent change. ”
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