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More than 60 MPs have just spoken out against Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s UK visit

More than 60 parliamentarians have written to the prime minister expressing their grave concern at reports that the Labour Party government is to welcome Israeli President Isaac Herzog on a visit to London from Tuesday 9 September.

MPs speak out against Isaac Herzog’s UK visit

In the letter, they stated that the UK, as a state party to the 1948 Genocide Convention, has a binding responsibility not only to refrain from committing genocide itself, but:

also to take active steps to prevent and punish genocide and incitement to it wherever it occurs. This obligation includes ensuring that individuals credibly implicated in the commission or incitement of such crimes are not afforded political legitimacy or hospitality by our government.

They pointed out that in 2024 the ICJ determined that there was a plausible risk that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. The group of more than 60 MPs added in the letter that:

In making that finding, the Court specifically cited statements made by President Herzog which appeared to dehumanise the Palestinian people and endorse collective punishment.

They asked ministers to urgently:

clarify what legal advice they have received regarding this visit, whether President Herzog’s entry to the UK is compatible with our obligations under the Genocide Convention, and what steps will be taken to ensure that Britain is not complicit in shielding or legitimising those accused of grave international crimes.

Finally, they added over Isaac Herzog:

Will any visa application made by the Israeli President to visit the UK this week be rejected or will he be subject to police investigation if he does arrive?

Isaac Herzog should be in the Hague

Pro-Palestine protesters hosted large and vociferous demonstrations on his arrival to condemn the visit of Israeli president Isaac Herzog to London:

Your Party’s Zarah Sultana spoke to packed crowds outside Downing Street:

Herzog has been one of the architects of the genocide in Gaza. Israel has now killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, including at least 20,000 children. The violent settler colonial state has maimed and traumatised many hundreds of thousands more. The decision of the Labour Party government to allow an official visit has caused outrage and revulsion amongst supporters of Palestine.

Committing the crime of genocide: welcome at Number 10

Isaac Herzog has been a key member of the Israeli regime throughout the genocide. He has been pictured signing missiles Israel has used in Gaza, and made statements such as:

The entire [Palestinian] nation out there… is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved.

Andy McDonald MP, the head signee to the letter, said:

It is of real concern the government has not concluded that Israel is acting with the intent of causing genocide, and that the government does not consider ICJ Provisional Measures should be regarded as warning of the risk of genocide. We all see mass civilian killings. Destruction of hospitals. Withholding vital aid. Israeli Ministers stating ‘no food, no water’. The International Association of Genocide Scholars, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and the ICJ have all warned states to uphold the Genocide Convention. The UK is failing to do so and that must change.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) director Ben Jamal said:

The President of a state recognised by a consensus of international law and genocide scholars to be committing the crime of genocide should be welcomed by nobody on a visit to the UK. It is bad enough that the government is not acting to deny him a visa; the news that Keir Starmer appears prepared to sit down with him at Downing Street is further confirmation of his government’s complicity in this genocide. A man who has issued a genocidal statements that dehaumanise all Palestinians as Herzog has, belongs not in a comfy chair in Downing Street but in the dock at the Hague.

Featured image via the Canary

By The Canary

This post was originally published on Canary.