Police priorities

Amid the surge in knife crime in London and with shoplifting reaching almost epidemic proportions, it might be thought that the capital’s police had enough to do. In addition, burglaries routinely go unsolved despite the insistence of sundry home secretaries that every crime should be investigated.

But as we report today, the Met is being recruited for a role beyond its immediate domestic duties to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza. Travellers arriving at London’s Heathrow and other airports are greeted with a poster appeal for witnesses to report allegations to Scotland Yard.

The inquiry is being conducted by the War Crimes Team within the Met Police, supporting a long-running investigation against Israel by the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in the Hague. While the ICC is also charged with investigating allegations of war crimes committed by Palestinian factions, the Met’s appeal has caused serious concern among British Jews and threatens a diplomatic rift with Israel.

It risks the Met being accused of supporting one side in the war with Hamas, an impression that is not helped by the force’s failure to crack down forcefully enough on pro-palestinian demonstrators, glorifying terrorism on the weekend marches through the capital. Met officers were also seen tearing down posters of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

While the Met is obliged to arrest anyone arriving in Britain against whom an international war crime warrant has been issued, it is questionable whether it should be actively soliciting information in this way. In particular, it must avoid looking one-sided, with only Israelis targeted.