On 21 November, that it had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, six months after the ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan applied for them. Some Western governments were quick to announce that they would abide by their obligations under international law and would indeed arrest Netanyahu and Gallant should they step foot in their countries.
It was some 24 hours later before we from the British government that it would also abide by its international obligations. However, both Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Developmental Affairs David Lammy, have yet to comment on the matter. This is hardly surprising considering both Starmer and Lammy have been defending and enabling the Israel’s genocide in Gaza since the very beginning.
In mid-October 2023, Starmer infamously that Israel had the right to cut off Gaza’s water and power supply. Although he later backtracked on this statement, he continued to parrot the line that Israel has “a right to defend itself” even after the ICJ announced that are being committed in Gaza.
Lammy has also made it very clear that the Labour Party will not part with its predecessors unflinching support for Israel. Ten days after the Labour Party won the general election in early July 2024, Lammy took his first official trip abroad to Israel where . At this point, the Israeli regime had already killed over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza- a third of whom were children.
Lammy has even taken upon himself to redefine the legal term of genocide in the House of Commons. In late October 2024, that the term is "largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the way that…(it is) used now undermines the seriousness of that term". Not only does this inaccurately portray the legal definition of genocide, it also directly which has recognised genocides where far fewer people were killed.
Clearly for Lammy, the issue isn’t the definition, but rather to whom it is being applied. In response to these comments, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Lammy of being a "genocide denier" and said the it was even more shocking considering his legal background. Starmer, who also has a legal background in human rights, also .
But beyond the rhetorical and diplomatic support of the Israeli regime, the British government has also been active in material support of the genocide.
Since coming into office, Starmer has approved continued military support and arms sales. British surveillance planes have been taking off from military bases in Cyprus headed in the direction of Gaza. It is understood that these plans are
Whilst Lammy announced the suspension of 30 British arms licenses to the Israeli regime in September 2024, . The suspended licenses do not include the components that are sold to maintain the Israeli fleet of F-35s- widely considered the most lethal fighter jet. In fact, it was recently revealed that the Defence Secretary, John Healey, specifically of licenses for F-35 components as it would; “It would undermine US confidence in the UK and NATO at a critical juncture in our collective history and set back relations”.
Of course it’s not only British politicians that have been enabling the genocide in Gaza. Whilst the US is an obvious case, many European heads of state and politicians have also lent their support to the genocide, including Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission and virtually all German politicians. This is why efforts at holding Israeli leaders accountable for the genocide is not enough. They need to extend to those who have actively supported, facilitated, and given cover to this mass slaughter. Because without the enablers, we would not be seeing the levels of destruction and devastation we are seeing today in Gaza.
But we also have to be realistic - international law is unlikely to deliver such accountability. Indeed since the announcement of the ICC arrest warrants, we have seen some rather creative legal acrobatics that have attempted to shield Netanyahu from the court’s decision.
France has that as Israel is not party to the ICC, its leaders are therefore granted immunity. that no one is exempt - not even heads of state of third parties. Other countries, seemingly impressed by France’s position, have also tried to find a way round the ICC warrants.
The Dutch Prime Minister, for example, that “there are possible scenarios, also within international law, in which (Netanyahu) would be able to come to the Netherlands without being arrested." These efforts to evade accountability highlight once again that political expediency of the powerful will always take precedence, even at the expense of the international legal order. Accountability must therefore also be pursued elsewhere and particularly at a grassroots level. Those that enable and facilitate genocide should know no peace.
Yara Hawari is the Co-Director of Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network.
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