The United States is reportedly pressuring the United Kingdom not to abandon its legal challenge against the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s authority to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes against Palestinians.
Human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson detailed the U.S. pressure in an article published in The Guardian on Wednesday. The ICC's Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, formally requested arrest warrants in May for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes such as causing extermination and starvation as methods of warfare, and deliberately targeting civilians during conflicts.
This request coincided with the Israeli military's ongoing war against the Gaza Strip, which began on October 7 and has resulted in over 38,240 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and more than 88,240 injuries. Israel's near-total siege on Gaza has severely restricted the flow of essential supplies like food, medicine, electricity, and water.
Britain's former Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, contested the ICC's jurisdiction over Israeli actions in Gaza. The U.S. now expects Sunak’s successor, Keir Starmer, to uphold this challenge. Robertson warned that succumbing to U.S. pressure would be “the first big moral mistake” of Starmer’s leadership, noting that the U.S., not being an ICC member, relies on the UK to protect its interests at the court.
The ICC, which had ruled in 2021 that it has jurisdiction over Israeli activities in Palestine, has given the new Labour government until July 26 to decide on continuing the legal challenge. This challenge is currently delaying the ICC’s decision on issuing the arrest warrants against Israeli officials
