Sunak criticises ICC’s ‘deeply unhelpful’ effort to arrest Netanyahu

Rishi Sunak has described the application for arrest warrants at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israeli officials as “deeply unhelpful”.

Speaking in Vienna, the Prime Minister said that the application for arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Yoav Gallant, his defence minister, would make no difference to getting aid into Gaza and reaching a ceasefire.

The ICC said it had evidence to charge the Israeli leaders with crimes against humanity, including using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza. It also applied for the arrest of Hamas leaders on charges including torture and taking hostages.

“This is a deeply unhelpful development,” Mr Sunak said. “Of course, it is still subject to a final decision, but it remains deeply unhelpful nonetheless.

“There is no moral equivalence between a democratic state exercising its lawful right to self-defence and the terrorist group Hamas. It is wrong to conflate and equivocate between those two different entities.”

Mr Sunak’s remarks followed Joe Biden condemning the ICC’s effort to seek the arrest of Mr Netanyahu as “outrageous”.

On Tuesday, an Israeli government spokesman urged the “civilised world” to unite against the ICC.

Unlike Israel and the United States, the UK Government is a signatory to the ICC and would be obliged to respect any warrant should its subject visit Britain.

On Monday, France said it supported the ICC’s “independence and the fight against impunity in all situations”.

The foreign ministry “condemned the anti-Semitic massacres perpetrated by Hamas” during the group’s attack on Israel on Oct 7, which was “accompanied by acts of torture and sexual violence”.

But it said it had warned Israel “of the need for strict compliance with international humanitarian law, and in particular of the unacceptable level of civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip and inadequate humanitarian access”.

Italy, on the other hand, backed the UK position, saying that it was “unacceptable” and “absurd” to compare Israel and Hamas.

Hamas ‘bent on slaughter’

Michael Gove, the Cabinet minister, also criticised the decision, accusing the ICC’s chief prosecutor of seeking “to hold Israel to standards that we don’t hold other countries to”.

“You cannot equate Israel with Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organisation, bent on slaughter. Israel is a state – like all states, an imperfect one, but one that’s trying to defend its people, and trying to equate the two is just nonsensical,” he told Times Radio.

Speaking at the JW3 Jewish Community Centre in north-west London on Tuesday morning, Mr Gove added: “Of course, it is the case that Israel and the Israeli government have and will make mistakes and they need to be held accountable for those errors.

“But there is a difference between a state attempting to defend its own citizens against a terrorist attack and a terrorist organisation that has made it clear that it will act with the utmost ruthlessness and absolutely no discrimination in its effort to eliminate the Jewish people in Israel.

“So there can be no equivalence between them. And that moral position, I think, has to guide our response to the legal operation of the ICC.”

Mr Gove added that Russia, Iran and China were seeking to spread “anti-Semitic and anti-Israel narratives”.

“They know that if they undermine Israel, other dominoes will fall,” he said.

‘Wilful killing’

On Monday, Karim Khan, ICC prosecutor, said he had applied for arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant for crimes including “wilful killing”, “extermination and/or murder”, and “starvation” during the war in Gaza.

He said Israel had committed “crimes against humanity”, and accused it “of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population”.

Mr Khan also said the leaders of Hamas, including Qatar-based Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, its Gaza chief, “bear criminal responsibility” for actions committed during Oct 7.

These included “taking hostages”, “rape and other acts of sexual violence”, and “torture”.

“International law and the laws of armed conflict apply to all,” Mr Khan said. “No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader – no one – can act with impunity.”

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