London, United Kingdom – “Starmer rolls out red carpet for genocide,” reads the front-page headline of The National, a Scottish daily, as anger mounts over the British prime minister’s meeting with Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president.
Herzog is understood to have arrived in the UK on Tuesday. He will meet the premier, Keir Starmer, on Wednesday and is reportedly planning to speak at the Chatham House think tank later in the day. He is expected to leave on Friday.
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Herzog’s visit, which comes during a week when Israel has dropped bombs on Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and Qatar, has prompted calls for his arrest while he is in London.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has written to Scotland Yard, demanding that the Israeli president be investigated upon his arrival in the UK, “on suspicion of bearing criminal liability for alleged war crimes”, the group said.
“Herzog is suspected of bearing criminal liability for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture, and actions that constitute plausible genocide,” said ICJP.
Protests condemning the visit began earlier this week. Demonstrators will gather with pots and pans at Chatham House in an attempt to disrupt the president’s address there.
Friends of Al-Aqsa, a UK-based NGO that calls for political change regarding Palestine, has applied to the director of public prosecutions and attorney general to launch criminal proceedings against Herzog on charges of encouraging indiscriminate attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the Strip’s civilian infrastructure. It has also sought an arrest warrant against Herzog. More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 2023.
“British politicians have failed to defend the Palestinians and champion the rule of law. There is now an opportunity for the courts to intervene,” said Ismail Patel, chair of Friends of Al-Aqsa. “It’s time to end impunity and uphold international law
“Every official, no matter how senior, must be held accountable for attacks on civilians.”
Herzog, president since 2021, has come under fire for the comments he made in October 2023 after the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel, during which nearly 1,200 people were killed.
“The entire [Palestinian] nation out there … is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved,” he said.
Two months later, he signed an artillery shell destined for Gaza.
Sacha Deshmukh, head of Amnesty International UK, said while Herzog’s position is largely ceremonial, “he has chosen to use it to defend collective punishment”.
“This visit is a test of leadership and principle: polite handshakes and warm words will demonstrate neither. The UK will be judged on whether it took strong action against genocide, or helped to whitewash it.”
The trip is certain to upset large sections of society who believe the government is at odds with public opinion. Tens of thousands have demonstrated against Israel’s onslaught for almost two years. A YouGov poll in July showed that more than half of Britons believe Israel’s actions in Gaza are unjustified.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski also called for Herzog’s arrest.
“Welcoming a potential war criminal to the UK is another demonstration of how this Labour government is implicated in the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” he said. “A refusal to detain Herzog can be seen as a contravention of the Geneva Convention, which makes clear that states have legal responsibility for preventing the targeting of civilians. When this is breached, individuals must be prosecuted, and this should be applied to Herzog.”
Dozens of lawmakers, including the prominent Labour politician Diane Abbott and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn, signed a letter by Labour’s Andy McDonald to Starmer, which said the visit “risks suggesting the UK is indifferent to its international legal responsibilities”.
Zarah Sultana, who also signed the letter, addressed protesters in London on Tuesday.
Source: Aljazeera
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