UK home secretary avoids direct answer on arrest possibility for Netanyahu, Gallant after ICC warrants

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - The British home secretary on Friday failed to respond to give a direct answer to the question of whether the UK would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant if they stepped on British soil.

Responding to questions on Sky News, Yvette Cooper said: “That's not a matter for me as home secretary, ... (but) the International Criminal Court (ICC) is, of course, independent, and we respect its independence and the role that it has to play.”

“But in the overwhelming majority of international criminal court investigations, they never become a matter for either the British legal rule and law enforcement processes or for the British government, in any case … there are proper processes that need to be followed, and therefore it wouldn't be appropriate for me to comment on those,” Cooper added.

She said the government’s position remains that “we believe the focus should be on getting a cease-fire in Gaza,” adding that the focus needs to “continue to be on getting a cease-fire in place.”

Further pressed on the possibility of arrest for Netanyahu and Gallant, Cooper said the UK respects the independence of the ICC.

She said: “We've always respected the importance of international law. But as I've said, in the majority of the cases that they pursue, they don't become part of the British legal process or the British government processes.

“On those cases where they do, there are important processes that need to be followed, and that's why it wouldn't be appropriate for me, as the Home Secretary, to comment on individual cases in a speculative way.”

Following the issuance of the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the government has been urged to make a statement to say they would abide by the ICC ruling as a signatory of the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court in 1998.

In a landmark move, the court announced that it had issued arrest warrants for the two Israeli leaders for war crimes in Palestinian territories, including Gaza.

It said it "found reasonable grounds" to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant "bear criminal responsibility" for "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts."

The warrants came as Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza recently entered its second year.