Britain will not withdraw its objection to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, according to an Israeli news outlet.
According to the British government, the 1993 Oslo Accords that created the Palestinian National Authority prevents Palestine from prosecuting Israelis for war crimes.
The argument has been critiqued as flimsy by legal scholars. Palestine was accepted into the ICC in 2015, and in 2021 the court said it had the power to investigate war crimes in the occupied territories.
Earlier this month, the Guardian reported that Labour government would drop its attempt to delay the ICC’s decision.