The International Criminal Court made a big-time decision on 11/21/24‚ putting out arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant from Israel‚ plus Mohammed Deif from Hamas
UKs new Labour government led by Sir Keir Starmer took a hands-off approach to the ICCʼs choice - quite different from what the last group did. The PMʼs office guy was kinda vague saying: “We respect the independence of the ICC“; leaving everyone wondering whatʼd happen if Netanyahu showed up in London
Some European countries (like Italy and Netherlands) jumped right in saying theyd arrest the Israeli PM; while Americas Joe Biden went the other way:
The ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous
The whole thing started after looking at what went down since last Octoberʼs attack. The court says the Israeli leaders did some bad stuff like using hunger as a weapon (which they say isnt true)‚ while Hamasʼs Deif got blamed for killing and other crimes
The ex-government folks arent happy about this at all. Dame Priti Patel thinks its super-wrong and wants Labour to fight back. But the new team under Starmer changed things up when they got in charge this summer - they dont want to mess with the courts work
Theres this thing called diplomatic-immunity that might help Netanyahu avoid trouble (like when Putin visited Mongolia in Sept and nothing happened to him even though he had a warrant too). But right now nobody knows for sure whats gonna happen if the Israeli PM decides to visit Britain
The ICC (started back in 02) can go after people for really serious stuff - war crimes and such. But some countries like Israel and the US dont follow its rules‚ which makes things extra-complicated