It was on May 20, 2024 that Karim Khan KC, a British jurist and chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), applied to the court to issue international arrest warrants against three Hamas leaders and also against Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Yoav Gallant.
On June 10, Britain’s then-Conservative government, acting as a so-called “amicus curiae” (or friend of the court), asked to submit some observations to the ICC regarding prosecutor Khan’s request for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.
On June 27 the ICC authorized the UK to submit written observations regarding the Court’s jurisdiction over Israeli nationals within the context of the Oslo Accords. Other interested parties could also submit observations until July 12, 2024.
Since that ICC order a general election in the UK has swept the Conservatives from power, and the nation is now ruled by a Labour government with an overwhelming majority. The question must arise as to whether Britain will continue to press its previously held legal opinions on the ICC.
Shortly after Kahn had applied for his arrest warrants, Andrew Mitchell, deputy foreign secretary in the UK’s previous administration, told members of parliament: “As we have said from the outset, we do not think that the ICC has jurisdiction in this case. The UK has not recognized Palestine as a state, and Israel is not a state party to the Rome statute.”
At the time Labour neither endorsed nor rejected this position, but on June 23 David Lammy, now Britain’s foreign minister, said: “Labour would comply with an ICC arrest order for Netanyahu” should one be issued.
On June 28 The Guardian, a left-wing UK newspaper regarded as markedly anti-Israel and close to the Labour party, reported: “The........