Cameron informed ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan that making use of for arrest warrants for Israeli officers can be like ‘dropping hydrogen bomb’, media report says.
A number of United Kingdom lawmakers have criticised the earlier authorities over allegations in a latest media report that former International Secretary David Cameron “privately threatened” to defund and withdraw from the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) over its plans to situation arrest warrants for Israeli officers over alleged warfare crimes in Gaza.
The report, printed on Monday by the UK-based outlet Center East Eye (MEE), cited sources with information of a telephone name Cameron allegedly made to ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan on April 23, 2024, after he had given advance discover of his intention to use for the warrants concentrating on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after which Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
MEE’s report cited unnamed sources, together with former employees in Khan’s workplace, and had seen minutes of the dialog, claiming that Cameron warned the arrest warrants, which have been issued in November that 12 months, can be – in quotes reported by the sources – tantamount to “dropping a hydrogen bomb”, warning that if the ICC went forward, the UK would “defund the court docket and withdraw from the Rome Statute”.
Khan reportedly stood his floor, with sources telling MEE that he stated afterwards that he didn’t like “being pressurised”. “I received’t say if it rises to blackmail – I don’t like being threatened,” he reportedly stated, including that the federal government was “debasing” the UK with its clear assault on the independence of the court docket and the rule of worldwide legislation.
Neither Khan nor Cameron, who was prime minister between 2010 and 2016, and now sits within the Home of Lords as a life peer, has commented on the report.
Following the report’s publication, Labour Occasion MP Zarah Sultana stated on X that Cameron “and each UK minister complicit in arming and enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza” must be investigated.
David Cameron — and each UK minister complicit in arming and enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza — have to be investigated for warfare crimes. https://t.co/YYcsmFg1BN
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) June 9, 2025
Scottish Nationwide Occasion MP Chris Regulation stated the allegations have been “stunning”, however added the nation was “not seeing a lot better beneath Labour”.
Surprising that the UK Tory govt tried to undermine the Worldwide Legal Court docket for investigating these answerable for warfare crimes in Gaza. Nevertheless not seeing a lot better beneath Labour #GazaGenocide https://t.co/Wd3nK9UkhV
— Chris Regulation MP (@ChrisLawSNP) June 9, 2025
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP, referred to as for an “unbiased inquiry into the UK’s function within the Gaza genocide”.
Regarding new allegations, which recommend the final international secretary tried to defend Israeli leaders from dealing with justice for warfare crimes.
We’d like an unbiased inquiry into the UK’s function within the Gaza genocide.https://t.co/JROBHyqtDo
— Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (@BellRibeiroAddy) June 9, 2025
Zack Polanski, the deputy chief of the Inexperienced Occasion, was cited by MEE as saying: “It’s been clear for all to see that each the previous and present authorities have stood with the oppressors, not the marginalised.”
When the ICC utilized for the arrest warrants in Could final 12 months, the earlier Conservative Occasion authorities, a powerful backer of Israel, decried the transfer as “not useful in relation to reaching a pause within the combating, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian help in”.
In July, the brand new Labour authorities, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, dropped the earlier Rishi Sunak-led authorities’s bid to problem the ICC’s energy to hunt the warrants, which have been issued for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders in November.
