Israel’s increasingly brazen conduct in Lebanon and the wider region should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. A government that has faced few meaningful consequences for its conduct in Gaza was never likely to become more restrained elsewhere.  

From repeatedly violating US-brokered ceasefires to advancing the ‘doomsday’ E1 settlement project despite near-universal international opposition, recent Israeli actions all point to the same conclusion: its leaders have become convinced they can violate international law with impunity. The uncomfortable truth is that, to a large extent, the international community has taught them exactly that. 

For two and a half years, Israel’s systematic bombardment and starvation of Gaza’s civilian population has met with little more than handwringing from the UK and its allies.

International courts have repeatedly sounded the alarm. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice found that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and ordered Israel to undertake provisional measures to prevent genocide – none of which were implemented.

The ruling triggered binding obligations on third states under the Genocide Convention to take active steps to prevent genocide and ensure accountability for those responsible. 

Yet many western governments responded with little more than expressions of concern. Instead of meaningful pressure, there were statements. Instead of consequences, there were warnings. Instead of enforcement, there was handwringing. As the Lib Dems declared in September 2025 genocide has clearly been taking place.  Sadly it continues.

The same pattern was evident when the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Yoav Minister Gallant, alongside a Hamas commander, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Rather than welcoming the arrest warrants, as when Vladamir Putin was indicted, the UK’s then Conservative government refused to say whether it would arrest Netanyahu if he visited the UK. Subsequent reports indicate that then Foreign Secretary David Cameron even threatened to defund the court after learning of its intention to seek the indictments.

In the US, hostility towards international accountability mechanisms has become even more explicit. Political interference with the ICC, including sanctions, threats and attempts to intimidate investigators, is now disturbingly routine. 

Human rights defenders and UN officials involved in documenting and seeking accountability for Israeli crimes have found themselves subjected to US sanctions. We have reached the absurd situation in which the world’s most powerful state appears more concerned with silencing those documenting atrocity crimes than punishing those who commit them.

It is within this climate of impunity that Israel’s increasingly reckless behaviour should be understood.

Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the recent reaction of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to reports that the ICC had requested an arrest warrant for him. Rather than expressing concern about the allegations, Smotrich responded by describing the move as “a declaration of war” and ordering the demolition of  Khan al-Ahmar, a prominent Palestinian Bedouin village.

Faced with the prospect of investigation for war crimes, Smotrich’s response was not to moderate his behaviour, but to escalate it. The implicit assumption is that the threat of legal consequences can safely be ignored.

When governments signal that international court rulings will not be enforced, it should surprise nobody that those accused of violating international law become increasingly indifferent to them.  There is a strong case for saying that British and other Western Government leaders have been complicit in war crimes – a case well-argued by journalist Peter Oborne in his excellent book “Complicit”.  He came and spoke about it at the last Lib Dem Conference in York.

This is why accountability for crimes committed in Gaza matters so profoundly.

It matters, first and foremost, because Palestinians deserve justice. But it also matters because the international system established after the Second World War depends upon the principle that no state and no individual is above the law. 

The Genocide Convention, the Geneva Conventions and the institutions of international justice were created in response to one of the darkest chapters in human history. They were designed not simply to punish atrocities after the fact, but to prevent them from occurring in the first place.

If international courts can be ignored, arrest warrants dismissed, and allies exempted from the rules that apply to everyone else, then those protections begin to collapse.

As a proudly internationalist party, the Liberal Democrats should be at the forefront of efforts to defend the rules-based order and the institutions underpinning it. That means unequivocal support for the International Criminal Court and other accountability mechanisms. It means ensuring that arrest warrants are enforced. It means resisting attempts to intimidate judges, prosecutors and human rights investigators. And it means supporting robust investigations into credible allegations of war crimes, including in cases where British dual nationals are accused of committing war crimes while in IDF service. 

Above all, it means recognising that accountability for crimes committed in Gaza is not simply a Palestinian cause. It is a test of whether the international system created after the Second World War still has the capacity to uphold the principles upon which it was founded.

If we fail that test, the consequences will not stop at Palestine. They will be felt wherever hostile states conclude that the law no longer applies to them.

* Anne-Marie Simpson is Chair of LDFP, and an active member in Didcot and Wantage constituency.