The Israeli leader is a fugitive from justice who has been overseeing a genocide for nearly three years. What are we waiting for?<\/b><\/p>\n
Last week, a group of British MPs sent an open letter to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper calling for sanctions against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
The case is clear. For nearly three years, Netanyahu has presided over what most experts, including the United Nations, have called a genocide in Gaza. This year alone, he has launched an illegal war against Iran, while killing more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes. Netanyahu has also given free rein to Israeli settler gangs to spread a reign of terror of ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
The primary focus of the MPs\u201e letter, however, is not on these issues, but on the horrific treatment of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. The letter cites a UN report from February, which found that \u201dtorture has become an integral part of the oppression and punishment of Palestinian men, women and children, both through abuse in detention and through forced displacement, mass killings and the destruction of living conditions.\u201d Needless to say, the letter was almost completely ignored by the mainstream British media. But that doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t have serious consequences.<\/p>\n
We can expect dramatic changes in British policy on Israel and Palestine when Andy Burnham, the presumptive next prime minister, moves into 10 Downing Street. There will be many reasons for the rapid policy shift, but Burnham's biggest incentive, above all, is sheer self-preservation.<\/p>\n
Let us not forget: Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves office haunted by the prospect that his reputation will be forever tarnished if the International Court of Justice (ICJ) rules that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. It would be foolish and presumptuous to predict the court\u2019s decision, but the ICJ is likely to rule against Israel.<\/p>\n
As in a previous one, the Middle East Eye<\/i>As I showed in my article published in , the defense presented by Israel\u2019s lawyers in January 2024 against the genocide charges has already collapsed. If the court decision is unfavorable to Israel, it will be a disaster for Israel\u2019s close ally, Britain, and especially for Starmer.<\/p>\n
Crucially, aiding and abetting genocide is a crime not only under international law but also under British domestic law. Section 52 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 prohibits acts that are related to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Under the Starmer government, Britain sold arms to Israel, and provided diplomatic protection and aerial surveillance data. This military and diplomatic alliance explains why the government has never charged Israel with war crimes. If the ICJ convicts Israel, lawyers will easily find evidence that Starmer was an accessory to genocide.<\/p>\n
As the Complicit: Britain's Role in the Destruction of Gaza<\/i> As I have argued in my book (Accomplices: Britain\u2019s Role in the Destruction of Gaza), the same applies to former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and certain other ministers, both Conservative and Labour. Burnham, by contrast, comes into office with \u201eclean hands\u201d. He was busy running Manchester and is not responsible for the foreign policy decisions of the outgoing Starmer administration. He has both a political and personal interest in keeping it that way. Starmer has divided Labour and driven millions of traditional voters into the arms of the Greens. Burnham will need to win them back if he wants to have a chance at the next election.<\/p>\n
Changing Britain\u2019s policy will draw condemnation from Israel and its friends, as well as the United States. But crucially, it won\u2019t affect the national budget. Most of the decisions Burnham faces will require painful financial choices: increasing defense spending, for example, will leave less money for welfare programs. The Treasury won\u2019t be upset if he changes his stance on Israel.<\/p>\n
If he is wise, Burnham will order an urgent review of British security and military cooperation with Israel, given that many legal experts believe Israel is committing genocide. He might also consider sanctioning Netanyahu. It is a mystery why this has not been done before. The letter to the Foreign Secretary also points out that \u201ethe government has still not sanctioned those members of the Israeli government responsible for the systematic torture of Palestinian detainees, including children.\u201d Netanyahu, as Israel\u2019s prime minister, is ultimately responsible for these grave crimes.<\/p>\n
So far, however, the only Israeli ministers sanctioned are Netanyahu's subordinates: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Isn't it strange that subordinates are sanctioned but their superiors are not? Would it have made sense to sanction Vladimir Putin's ministers after the invasion of Ukraine, but not Putin himself?<\/p>\n
This contradiction makes the Starmer government\u2019s sanctions policy incomprehensible. Let\u2019s not forget: Netanyahu has had an arrest warrant for him from the International Criminal Court (ICC) since November 2024. Britain is a party to the Rome Statute and formally recognizes the jurisdiction of the ICC. All 125 states that are signatories to the Rome Statute are legally obliged to arrest and hand over to the ICC any suspect who enters their territory.<\/p>\n
Yet, after Netanyahu has been an international fugitive for almost two years, Britain has refused to sanction him \u2013 even though the government had no qualms about sanctioning Putin and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, days after the invasion of Ukraine. This is a mockery of justice. It turns the rule of law into a buffet where we can pick and choose which rules to apply depending on our relationship with the offending state.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Az izraeli vezet\u0151 az igazs\u00e1gszolg\u00e1ltat\u00e1s el\u0151l menek\u00fcl\u0151 szem\u00e9ly, aki k\u00f6zel h\u00e1rom \u00e9ve ir\u00e1ny\u00edt egy n\u00e9pirt\u00e1st. Mire v\u00e1runk m\u00e9g? A m\u00falt h\u00e9ten brit k\u00e9pvisel\u0151k egy csoportja ny\u00edlt levelet k\u00fcld\u00f6tt Yvette Cooper k\u00fcl\u00fcgyminiszternek, amelyben az izraeli minisztereln\u00f6k, Benjamin Netanjahu szankcion\u00e1l\u00e1s\u00e1t k\u00f6vetelik. Az \u00fcgy egy\u00e9rtelm\u0171. Netanjahu k\u00f6zel h\u00e1rom \u00e9ve ir\u00e1ny\u00edtja azt, amit a legt\u00f6bb szak\u00e9rt\u0151, k\u00f6zt\u00fck az Egyes\u00fclt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAowjNHLDA:productID":"","rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"wpai_generated_summary":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-izrael-igazi-arca","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipropaganda.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}