After weeks of wavering, the UK government has decided to not proceed with the previous Conservative government’s objection to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) application for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. This just comes just over a week after reports emerged that the new Labour Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, had capitulated to joint US-Israel pressure and agreed to maintain the objection. During his visit to Israel he failed to put any meaningful pressure on the Israeli government and was pictured shaking hands with Israeli leaders, Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog, who have, for over nine months, orchestrated a genocide.

The Labour government’s decision to not proceed with the previous government’s shameful objection to arrest warrants being issued by the ICC against Netanyahu and Gallant is a small but welcome step in the right direction. It comes as a result of over nine months of organising by the Palestinian solidarity movement and public, who have stood steadfastly against Israel’s ongoing genocide and put continuous pressure on the political establishment to stand on the right side of history.

In response to the news, Shamiul Joarder, Head of Public Affairs at Friends of Al-Aqsa, said, “Any government who claims to uphold international law should not stand in the way of the ICC trying to bring Israeli war criminals to justice and it should not have taken Keir Starmer three weeks to drop the UK’s objection. Now, the government needs to take more meaningful steps to illustrate its respect for human rights and international law. We at Friends of Al-Aqsa demand that the UK end its complicity in Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people by immediately placing it under a complete arms embargo; use all diplomatic and economic means to pressure Israel to accept an immediate ceasefire and end its illegal occupation of Palestinian land; and support international efforts, such as those in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), to bring Israel to account for its crimes. Thank you to everyone who has been joining our campaigns for Palestine. Our consistent campaigning, the elections, and continuing to pressure the government has resulted in these shifts. We need much more movement and we can't stop now.”