The UK Foreign Office has confirmed that the foreign secretary, David Lammy, met his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar, while Sa’ar was on an unannounced visit to London.
The Foreign Office described Sa’ar’s visit as “private”, though it said Lammy had discussed a full range of Middle East issues with the Israeli foreign minister. News of Sa’ar’s presence in the UK – at a time when Israel is intensifying its offensive in Gaza, having ended a ceasefire last month – has triggered outrage among critics of Israel, and a formal request from activists for an arrest warrant to be issued against him on charges of alleged complicity in war crimes.
The Global Legal Action Network (Glan), a London-based group seeking legal redress for disadvantaged and persecuted communities, and the Brussels-based Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), which focuses on legal accountability for Israeli war crimes, wrote joint letters on Wednesday to the UK’s attorney general and the director of public prosecutions to seek their consent for a private prosecution against Sa’ar in the UK.
They also said an application for an arrest warrant had been prepared for Westminster magistrates court.
Glan and the HRF cited Sa’ar’s position in the Israeli security cabinet and his public statements on Gaza as grounds for alleging the foreign minister’s complicity in war crimes carried out by Israeli forces.
Sa’ar’s visit to London was not publicised by him or his ministry, and the Israeli embassy did not reply to a request for comment on Wednesday afternoon. The Israeli government has denied committing war crimes, and has rejected the jurisdiction of the international criminal court (ICC) and the international court of justice (ICJ).
The HRF has been particularly criticised in Israel for its legal pursuit of Israeli soldiers when they travel abroad. The organisation’s founders, Dyab Abou Jahjah and Karim Hassoun, have been accused of expressing public support for Hezbollah and Hamas.
A spokesperson for the HRF said: “Since our formation, there has been a baseless campaign to smear our founders, led mostly by the Israeli government. Dyab Abou Jahjah is not, nor has he ever been, a member of Hezbollah. Karim Hassoun is originally from Morocco. While both support and respect the rights of all people to resist occupation – as is their human right under international law – neither adhere to any political party in Lebanon.”
The UK Foreign Office confirmed that Lammy met Sa’ar on Tuesday to discuss Gaza and other pressing Middle East issues, during what it described as the latter’s “private visit to the UK”.
Sa’ar was spotted by an Israeli journalist leaving Israel for the UK on Monday. His meeting with Lammy was first reported by the UK-based news website Middle East Eye, and Ynet in Israel.
Zarah Sultana, the independent MP for Coventry South, said Sa’ar’s visit was “a direct affront to both international law and the Palestinian people enduring genocide, military occupation and apartheid under his government”.
“Sa’ar has openly justified the denial of life-saving aid to a besieged civilian population,” Sultana said. “That is why I fully support the initiative by humanitarian law groups to demand an arrest warrant. The UK must stand firmly with international law and ensure all those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity are held accountable, no matter how powerful they are.”
In the submissions presented on Wednesday, Glan and the HRF said the ICC had issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former defence minister Yoav Gallant for their involvement in the military campaign in Gaza, in which an estimated 51,000 people have been killed over 18 months, and in the restriction of humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza’s population of 2.2 million.
On Wednesday, the ICC called on the Hungarian government of Viktor Orbán to formally explain its actions earlier this month, when it hosted Netanyahu in Budapest, ignoring the arrest warrant. During Netanyahu’s visit, Hungary announced it was leaving the ICC, though under the court’s founding Rome statute, it takes a year for withdrawal to take effect.
The ICJ is also reviewing an allegation of genocide, first brought by South Africa, directed at Israel’s war in Gaza. The ICJ issued provisional orders last year calling for Netanyahu’s government to halt its offensive and urgently address the humanitarian situation. In March, the Netanyahu government ended a ceasefire agreement and intensified its military operations and aid blockage of Gaza.
Glan and the HRF said in a joint press statement: “As a senior member of Israel’s security cabinet alongside Benjamin Netanyahu – wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza – Gideon Sa’ar is deeply implicated in the collective decisions that led to mass civilian death and suffering following October 7, 2023.
“His central role in shaping and defending the government’s military policy makes him a key figure in the leadership responsible for a campaign the ICJ has found plausibly genocidal.”
The UK Foreign Office passed on a question about the arrest warrant request to the attorney general’s office. It said that in Lammy’s meeting with Sa’ar on Tuesday, the British foreign secretary “raised the ongoing hostage negotiations, protection of aid workers, the need to end the humanitarian blockade of Gaza and stop settlement expansion in the West Bank, and the Iranian nuclear issue”.
Lammy also “raised the importance” of visits by UK members of parliament to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, after two Labour MPs were denied entry by Israeli authorities.
In their submission, Glan and the HRF said Sa’ar had been a member of Israel’s security cabinet and an informal consultative group around Netanyahu since he rejoined the governing coalition in September.
Among their list of alleged war crimes committed by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza is the siege of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza between October and December last year and the detention of its medical director, Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, who the organisations say has been subjected to torture while in Israeli prisons.
Israel, the complaint says, is responsible in general for the “wanton destruction” of Gaza’s infrastructure, aimed at “destroying the fabric of Gaza’s society and for the purpose of starving Gaza”. It also pointed to the harm caused to civilians by the Israeli blockade of medical supplies and basic provisions into Gaza.
As well as citing Sa’ar’s membership of the Israeli security cabinet, the groups’ submission in support of the arrest warrant request quotes Sa’ar’s public statements on seizing territory in Gaza and cutting off humanitarian aid. They also argued that he did not have immunity from arrest on the basis of his government position.
The Israeli government and Sa’ar himself have previously denounced attempts to pursue prosecutions against Israel in international courts as antisemitic. In January, Sa’ar said: “What we are witnessing is a systematic and antisemitic campaign aimed at denying Israel’s right to self-defence.”
“Countless international actors and many countries are complicit in this,” he added.
