High Peak MP criticised after casting doubt on Israel war crimes charges - days before colleagues deported

MP Jon Pearce visited the Middle East last month as chair of the parliamentary interest group Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), where he met with Israeli and Palestinian figureheads and other key players in the region.

On Saturday, March 29, he penned an opinion article in the Jerusalem Post discussing UK-Israel relations and LFI’s position on key issues – which has attracted criticism on social media, with one publication describing it as ‘a nauseating piece of propaganda.’

Though it ran under the headline, ‘Under Keir Starmer, Britain is a friend of Israel’, Mr Pearce’s comments diverged from official UK Government positions, and they have been cast in new light by events since. In his opening lines, Mr Pearce addressed the subject of international arrest warrants issued for Israel’s Prime Minister and former Minister of Defence.

Mr Pearce writes: “We believe the International Criminal Court’s case against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant is morally suspect, legally dubious, and we wouldn’t have dropped Britain’s objection to it.”

The charge sheets against the two accused, issued on November 21, 2024, allege responsibility “for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare and of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.”

An ICC warrant was issued at the same time for Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, also on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, though he is now known to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike in July 2024.

In rejecting Israel’s challenge of the warrants, the ICC found reasonable grounds to believe that Galllant and Netanyahu intentionally deprived Gaza’s civilian population of essential necessities for survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, with no clear military need or other justification under international humanitarian law.

The court concluded that had created conditions calculated to bring about the destruction of civilians, including children, due to malnutrition and dehydration; that a significant portion of Gaza’s population had been denied their fundamental rights to life and health; and that the population was targeted based on political and/or national grounds.

The warrants require that the 125 states party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court are required to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they enter their territory.

Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, but the law has been in force in the UK since 2002, and following the 2024 General Election, the UK Government reversed the previous administration’s initial opposition to the ICC process.

While some Government ministers have been more equivocal when asked whether arrests would actually be carried out if either of the wanted men entered the UK, when the warrants were issued, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “We respect the independence of the ICC, which is the primary institutional institution for investigating and prosecuting the most serious crimes in relation to international law.”

“The UK will always comply with its legal obligations as set out by domestic law and indeed international law.” Evidence of Israel’s failure to comply with its legal obligations prompted the UK Government to suspend 30 of around 350 arms export licences to the country in September 2024, where there was “a clear risk certain military exports to Israel might be used in violations of international humanitarian law.”

In his article, Mr Pearce writes: “Naturally, there will always be some disagreements between friends. Labour Friends of Israel opposed the restrictions on some arms sales to Israel imposed last September.”

Russian president Valdimir Putin is also currently subject to an ICC arrest warrant, and Mr Pearce also used his column to decry “Russia’s indiscriminate bombardment of Ukrainian civilians” without any reference to the fact that Israel’s military operations in Gaza have been judged in similar terms.

In June 2024, the United Nations Human Rights Council examined six specific incidents of heavy bombing in civilian areas and warned: “Israel's choices of methods and means of conducting hostilities in Gaza since 7 October, including through the extensive use of explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas, have failed to ensure that they effectively distinguish between civilians and fighters.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said: “The requirement to select means and methods of warfare that avoid or at the very least minimise to every extent civilian harm appears to have been consistently violated in Israel’s bombing campaign.”

There appears to have been no mention of Mr Pearce’s visit to Israel on his website or social media accounts, so the Buxton Advertiser invited the MP to explain his thinking for the benefit of constituents who he has represented since last July.

He said: “The Netanyahu government has been a disaster for Israel and its security. The resumption of conflict in Gaza won’t achieve Israel’s aims of returning the hostages or ending Hamas’ rule. It will only lead to further heart-breaking suffering on the part of innocents in Israel and Palestine alike.

“I support an end to the war and the release of the hostages, together with a long-term effort to bring about a two-state solution, diplomatic relations between Israel and the Arab world, and a robust plan to tackle the threat posed by Iran – to Israel, the region, and people here at home. The ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leadership did nothing to advance any of these goals.

“It is morally wrong: it draws an equivalence between the actions of the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists, who committed the worst atrocity against Jews since the Holocaust, and those of democratically elected leaders.”

“The ICC decision also undermines international law and the legal principle of complementarity, which restricts its role to states which lack independent judicial systems. Israel – which has robust and independent judges – doesn’t fall into this category. Netanyahu is currently in the dock on corruption charges and Israeli courts have sent former leaders to prison.”

“We’d rightly expect a British Prime Minister or British troops accused of war crimes to stand trial here in the UK. That applies to Israel, too: Netanyahu should be held to account by Israeli courts. By comparison, the ICC was right to issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin: nobody believes that Kremlin-compliant judges would dare act against the Russian dictator.

“LFI’s position on this issue is one shared by the former Biden administration, Germany and President Macron’s government, as well as the Israeli centre-left opposition parties.”

ICC Prosecutor Karim AA Khan has said that “Complementarity, however, requires a deferral to national authorities only when they engage in independent and impartial judicial processes that do not shield suspects and are not a sham. It requires thorough investigations at all levels addressing the policies and actions underlying these applications.”

Mr Pearce also added: “On the issue of arms licences, I simply do not believe that restrictions on UK arms sales will help end the tragic conflict in Gaza.

“Let’s not forget that Israel is the third largest supplier of arms to the UK: its weaponry has saved the lives of British troops serving overseas. Israel shares intelligence with Britain which helps keep our streets safe from terror. And Israeli tech and expertise is helping protect us from cyberattacks: as the National Cyber Security Centre warned last November: “Iran-based threat actors remain aggressive in cyberspace.”

The Advertiser asked for Mr Pearce’s views on the decision of Israeli immigration authorities to refuse entry to UK Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang on Saturday, April 5, when the pair have said they were travelling to “witness the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory first-hand.”

Illustrating the contrast with Mr Pearce’s welcome to the country, in a statement reported by the BBC the Israeli embassy in London said the the country "will not allow the entry of individuals or entities that act against the state and its citizens.”

It said Mohamed and Yang had “accused Israel of false claims” and were “actively involved in promoting sanctions against Israeli ministers.”

Mr Pearce said: “It’s wrong and counterproductive for Israel to refuse entry to British Members of Parliament. We have raised our concerns with the Israeli authorities.

“Over the years LFI has taken hundreds of MPs to Israel and Palestine; it's vital parliamentarians are able to visit and understand the situation on the ground. I was in the region just last month meeting Israelis, Palestinians and Emiratis; there is no substitute for seeing something with your own eyes.

“I was deeply disappointed by the comments from [Conservative leader] Kemi Badenoch, failing to support parliamentary colleagues and attempting to politicise this issue. It showed a complete lack of judgement.”

Mr Pearce’s perspective is significant in and of itself, but his comments also come at a time when geopolitical shifts are stressing principles of international justice to their limits.

Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza in mid-March, ending a two-month ceasefire, and again cut off access to food, medicine, fuel, electricity and other supplies to Gaza's population of around 2million people.

Israel is also facing allegations of genocidal acts in a separate ongoing process in the International Court of Justice, as well as countless reports concerning the killing of non-combatant civilians, aid workers and journalists, and many expert accounts describing polices in Gaza and the West Bank as a process of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.

Just this week, video evidence emerged of an Israeli military attack on an ambulance convoy from aid organisation Red Crescent on March 23. The video was recovered from a mass grave containing 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers.

Altogether, the state of Israel, its military and leadership stand accused of the most serious offences prohibited under international laws which were established following the Second World War.

Though the historical context extends back far beyond October 7, 2023, advocates for Israel’s approach to conflict over the past 18 months cite a justification of recovering hostages and self-defence against attacks by Hamas, other armed groups and neighbouring states.

Last week, Hungary and its prime minister Viktor Orbán welcomed a visit by Mr Netanyahu – defying the country’s obligations as an ICC signatory, and announcing its withdrawal from the Rome Statute.

During the visit, Mr Netanyahu said: “It's important for all democracies. It's important to stand up to this corrupt organisation.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar also said “The so-called International Criminal Court lost its moral authority after trampling the fundamental principles of international law in its zest for harming Israel's right to self-defence.”

On the other side, ICC Prosecutor Khan has argued: “If we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as being applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions for its collapse. In doing so, we will be loosening the remaining bonds that hold us together, the stabilising connections between all communities and individuals, the safety net to which all victims look in times of suffering. This is the true risk we face in this moment.”

This week, Mr Netanyahu is visiting the USA – which has never ratified the Rome Statute – to meet with President Donald Trump, who in February ordered sanctions against the ICC and is now warning of a potential military confrontation with Iran.

Mr Pearce also addressed that possibility in saying: “Crucially, too, failing to stand alongside Israel in the face of terrorists like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis – who are funded and armed by Iran – sends a dangerous signal to the Iranian regime. Iran is the world’s lead sponsor of state terrorism, with MI5 uncovering 20 terror plots in the UK linked to Iran since 2022. Iran commands the biggest ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East – with a range that can reach Europe – and its nuclear programme is on the threshold of producing a nuclear weapon.

“And Iran is Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine. As well as firing drones and missiles at Israel, it’s also supplying them so the Kremlin can commit mass murder against our allies in Kyiv. Hamas, like Russia, was the aggressor on 7 October. Israel attempts to avoid civilian casualties; Russia deliberately seeks to inflict them. And while Ukraine does all it can to protect its people, Hamas uses them as human shields.

“The ‘Moscow-Tehran axis” is a menace to us all. Ukraine stands on the frontline against it in Europe; Israel in the Middle East.

“Just as we’re right to back Ukraine’s battle against Putin, so Israel’s fight against Iranian-backed terror is, quite simply, our fight too.”

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