Starmer urged not to meet Israel’s president during UK visit
Speculation of a meeting between Sir Keir and Isaac Herzog has sparked outrage among Labour MPs
Labour MPs have urged Sir Keir Starmer not to meet with Israel’s president as he travels to the UK for talks with government ministers.
Isaac Herzog is expected to visit London next Wednesday and Thursday, and is the latest senior Israeli official to go to Britain after Gideon Sa’ar, the country’s foreign minister, met with David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, in April.
The talks come as the UK prepares to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly this month, a move that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has described as “rewarding” Hamas.
The Guardian first reported that Mr Herzog, who serves in a largely ceremonial role as Israel’s head of state, planned to visit, but no meetings have been confirmed by No 10 and it is unclear which ministers the president planned to speak with.
However, speculation of a meeting between Sir Keir and Mr Herzog has sparked outrage among Labour MPs.
Sarah Champion, the MP for Rotherham and chair of the international development committee who spearheaded the effort to recognise a Palestinian state, said Israel was perpetrating a “genocide” and questioned “what message are we sending” with the visit.
Zarah Sultana, who sits as an independent after her suspension from Labour, said she was “beyond disgusted” at the prospect of Mr Herzog travelling to the UK and called for his arrest for “war crimes”.
Sir Keir last met with Mr Herzog in July 2024 in Paris, where the two men reiterated the “historic friendship” between the UK and Israel, and the Prime Minister backed the Jewish state’s “right to self-defence”.
However, Sir Keir and Labour have since criticised Mr Netanyahu’s handling of the conflict.
In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Mr Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated during the war in Gaza.
Mr Lammy then publicly called for Mr Netanyahu’s arrest if he stepped foot on British soil, a move the UK would be obligated to make as a party to the ICC’s Rome Statute, but one No 10 has not confirmed it would actually carry out.
At the time of the ICC’s decision, Mr Herzog, who was not included in the group wanted for arrest, said: “The decision chose the side of terrorism and evil over democracy and freedom and turned the international justice system itself into a human shield for Hamas’ crimes against humanity.”
Although Mr Herzog has previously clashed with Mr Netanyahu over his controversial changes to the Israeli judiciary system, he has strongly backed the Israeli prime minister’s handling of the conflict in Gaza.
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg in February, Mr Herzog rejected “out of hand” accusations of crimes against civilians, despite the declaration last month of a “man-made” famine in the enclave and over 65,000 recorded deaths of Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
In another appearance on Ms Kuenssberg’s show in June, the Israeli president said that Palestinians shot while queuing for food at Gaza aid sites were “Hamas operatives”, and rejected some of the reports as “false”.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
