British MPs urge government to endorse ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu, Gallant

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - British lawmakers on Thursday called on the UK government to endorse the International Criminal Court’s new arrests warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

In a landmark move, the Hague court on Thursday announced it had issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over war crimes it accuses them of carrying out in Palestinian territories, including Gaza.

On the announcement, Jeremy Corbyn, an independent MP, called the warrants "long overdue" and the “bare minimum,” urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy to "immediately" endorse the move.

"Will the UK government now, finally, honour its international obligations to prevent genocide and end all arms sales to Israel?" Corbyn, also a prominent former Labour Party leader, asked on X.

Zarah Sultana, Labour MP for Coventry South, also urged the government to act in line with the decision.

"The UK government must comply with the ICC, end all arms sales, impose economic sanctions & suspend its trade deal with Israel. Nothing less will do," she said.

Adnan Hussain, an independent MP for Blackburn, said the government must now change its position “immediately" and take firm and resolute action against Israel, including cutting all diplomatic ties and stopping all arms sales.

"To refuse is to be complicit," he said.

"My question to the @10DowningStreet and the Prime Minister will now be that if either (Netanyahu or Gallant) come to the UK; will they be arrested and put before the international courts!" Ayoub Khan, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, wrote on X.

- 'Barbaric crimes are clear for all to see'

Andy McDonald, another Labour Party MP, hailed the warrants as a "major development," saying the court found reasonable grounds of responsibility for crimes against humanity.

Richard Burgon, Labour Party MP for Leeds East, also welcomed the warrants, saying the two top Israeli officials’ “barbaric crimes are clear for all to see.”

“Our Government must commit to enforcing these arrest warrants. And Governments must now impose sanctions on Israel to stop more war crimes,” he noted.

Apsana Begum, independent MP for Poplar and Limehouse, said that the government needs to get behind the Hague court now to “uphold international law and end its own complicity.”

The warrants come as Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza recently entered its second year, having already killed some 44,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 103,000 others.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing and deliberate blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, pushing the population to the brink of starvation.