Boris and Cameron blast Labour over support for Bibi war crimes arrest
TWO former prime ministers have criticised Labour for appearing to back an international criminal court ( ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Lord Cameron branded Sir Keir Starmer’s party the ‘odd man out’ while Boris Johnson said the party should be ‘ashamed’ for backing the potential prosecution.
It came after shadow foreign secretary David Lammy defended the court and said that ‘international law must be upheld’.
Speaking in the House of Lords yesterday, Lord Cameron noted how Germany, the US, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic had all condemned the action by the court’s chief prosecutor.
He compared this to how Labour ‘seems to be saying it supports the ICC in every way’ as he said the decision by the court is ‘a mistake’.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan triggered international outrage after saying he would apply for arrest warrants for key Israeli and Hamas figures who he said were responsible for war crimes in Gaza and Israel.
They include Mr Netanyahu, Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.
He accused Israel of using ‘starvation as a method of warfare’ and carrying out ‘collective punishment’ of the population of Gaza and said Hamas’s actions were ‘unconscionable crimes’ that ‘demand accountability’.
The ICC panel includes Sir Adrian Fulford, Judge Theodor Meron, Amal Clooney, Danny Friedman, Baroness Helena Ke n n e d y and Elizabeth Wilmshurst.
Baroness Kennedy, KC, was given a life peerage by Tony Blair in 1997 and speaks regularly on civil liberties and human rights issues. She is a founding member of Doughty Street Chambers in
1990, along with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer. Danny Friedman, KC, is another British human rights barrister who recently accused Israel of breaching international law by its actions in Gaza.
The Jewish lawyer wrote an article for Jewish News in November in which he accused Israel of causing ‘catastrophic mass fatality and untold human suffering of Palestinians.’
Amal Clooney is a barrister with Doughty Street. Solicitor Elizabeth Wilmshurst is an ‘Academic Expert’ with Doughty Street chambers.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson told the Mail that Labour’s backing for the ‘rule of Lefty lawyers’ would embolden Hamas, Iran and Russia. ‘This is Starmer’s world - the rule of Lefty lawyers, weakening Britain abroad and making it harder for democracies to stand up for freedom,’ he said.
‘Who will be pleased by Labour’s decision? Hamas. Iran. Russia. That’s who. Shame on the whole Labour frontbench.’
However, Labour sources denied that Mr Lammy had drawn any moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas. They said he was in agreement with other countries including France, Germany and the EU in backing the independence of the ICC.
But Lord Cameron told peers:‘I don’t believe for one moment that seeking these warrants is going to help get the hostages out, it’s not going to help get aid in and it’s not going to help deliver a sustainable ceasefire.
‘To draw moral equivalence between the Hamas leadership and the democratically- elected leader of Israel I think is just plain wrong.’
Rishi Sunak also said that the move was ‘deeply unhelpful’, adding: ‘There is no moral equivalence between a democratic state exercising its lawful right to self defence and the terrorist group Hamas.’
If the court does issue the warrants, ICC members, would have a legal obligation to arrest Mr Netanyahu if he were to enter the country, though members have defied ICC warrants in the past.
The prosecution’s actions have drawn international condemnation, with US President Joe Biden dismissing the ICC’s move as ‘outrageous’ and rejected it.
Israel is not a member of the court, so the PM would not face detention in his own country, but British police would be obliged to detain him.
Mr Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders condemned the move as disgraceful and antisemitic.
Speaking to CNN the Israeli PM said the charge was ‘outrageous’, describing the ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan as a ‘rogue prosecutor’.
‘No moral equivalence’
WAS there ever any doubt that the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor would eventually accuse Israel of war crimes?
He represents an institution that is seen by some as a political pressure group as much as a court of law.
Advising the prosecutor, a barrister named Karim Khan, was a panel of jurists including human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy from the sanctimonious Left (who did condemn Hamas after October 7).
Even so, the chances of their having total sympathy with Israel in its struggle for survival were not high.
The truth is, Mr Khan’s decision to request an arrest warrant for Israel’s elected prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister is an absurd overreach.
He tried to show some semblance of evenhandedness by also calling for the arrest of three Hamas leaders, but this made the situation even worse.
It draws a moral equivalence between the genocidal terror group that sparked this latest conflict with an orgy of rape, murder and kidnap, and a democratic government acting to defend itself.
It’s true that Israel has exacted a heavy price in Gaza, but its sole aim is to stop such abominations as the October 7 massacre happening again. This is not a ‘war crime’, it’s simply war.
It’s easy for puffed-up ICC lawyers to pronounce judgment, but they are not the ones Hamas wants to exterminate.
Mr Khan’s panel included Labour peer Baroness Kennedy and a barrister from Cherie Blair’s former chambers.
Little surprise then, that shadow foreign secretary David Lammy seemed to back the ICC decision. It is typical of his party’s endless flip-flopping.
He and Sir Keir originally supported Israel’s right to self-defence. Now, to placate their Muslim voters, Labour’s frontbench is endorsing the arrest of its prime minister.
Should Labour win power at the election, such confused and erratic foreign policy will make the world a more dangerous place.