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LONDON: The upcoming visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog to London on Wednesday has prompted controversy in the UK, with campaigners calling for his arrest and MPs voicing their concern about the trip.

The Friends of Al-Aqsa campaign group has filed a request to the director of public prosecutions for an arrest warrant to be issued against Herzog for alleged war crimes.

The claim centers around statements made by him in the aftermath of the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, after which he said “the entire Palestinian nation” was responsible.

Those words, it is claimed in the request, were used by Israeli soldiers as justification for their actions in the subsequent war in Gaza.

A lawyer advising the group said normally heads of state would be immune from arrest and prosecution in the UK, but a precedent had been set by the International Criminal Court’s issuing of arrest warrants for heads of state.

The lawyer added that in England, private individuals could also ask the director of public prosecutions to issue arrest warrants for private prosecutions, rather than leave them to the Crown Prosecution Service for state action.

Earlier this year, the ICC issued arrest warrants for senior Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“A leader of a country that carries out gross human right violations and indiscriminate killing should not be allowed in the UK,” said the founder of Friends of Al-Aqsa, Ismail Patel.

“Britain has failed to defend Palestinian rights and champion the rule of law. There is now an opportunity to correct the failings and issue an arrest warrant to investigate into Herzog’s incitement to attacks on Gaza.”

Meanwhile, a group of 60 politicians have written to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to express their misgivings about Herzog’s visit.

They said the UK, as a signatory of the 1948 Genocide Convention, has a duty “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 added that the International Court of Justice had said there is a possibility that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, and asked the government to “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.”

Andy McDonald MP, one of the letter’s signatories, 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.”

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said Herzog is an “architect” of the “genocide in Gaza,” and the UK’s decision to welcome him “has caused outrage and revulsion amongst supporters of Palestinian rights.”

Ben Jamal, director of the PSC, said in a statement: “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 dehumanise all Palestinians as Herzog has, belongs not in a comfy chair in Downing Street but in the dock at the Hague.”