Cameron informed ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan that making use of for arrest warrants for Israeli officers could 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 Overseas Secretary David Cameron “privately threatened” to defund and withdraw from the Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) over its plans to subject arrest warrants for Israeli officers over alleged battle crimes in Gaza.
The report, revealed on Monday by the UK-based outlet Center East Eye (MEE), cited sources with information of a cellphone 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 had been issued in November that yr, could 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 regulation.
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” ought to be investigated.
David Cameron — and each UK minister complicit in arming and enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza — should be investigated for battle crimes. https://t.co/YYcsmFg1BN
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) June 9, 2025
Scottish Nationwide Occasion MP Chris Legislation stated the allegations had been “stunning”, however added the nation was “not seeing a lot better underneath Labour”.
Surprising that the UK Tory govt tried to undermine the Worldwide Legal Courtroom for investigating these chargeable for battle crimes in Gaza. Nevertheless not seeing a lot better underneath Labour #GazaGenocide https://t.co/Wd3nK9UkhV
— Chris Legislation 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 protect Israeli leaders from dealing with justice for battle 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 yr, 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 support 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 had been issued for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders in November.
