November 21, 2024, will go down in history as a Day of Shame for Britain. This is the day a British citizen, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), officially issued the arrest warrants for two Israelis, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, along with a presumably dead terrorist, for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
November 22 will also go down in history as a Day of Shame for Britain. This is the day the British government tacitly agreed. Technically a democratically elected leader of a democratic nation and his former Defense Minister risk being arrested if they set foot on British soil. Even if stopping short of promising to uphold the ICC ruling, Britain carries responsibility as a signatory and founding member of the ICC.
So November 21/22 stand for a Day of Shame for Britain twice over. As a Briton and as an Anglican I feel deeply ashamed. First for the British government and then for the Anglican Church. Who knows if our government would have failed an ally like Israel if it hadn’t been for the then-Archbishop of Canterbury? In August 2024 the latter publicly backed the demand of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for Israel to give up Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem, territory promised to her by God.
In November the Pope, representing Catholics worldwide, including Britain, went a step further. He supported a genocide investigation of Israel.
So the Church has a lot to answer for.
Human rights are enshrined in English Common Law: innocent until proven guilty. That seems to have gone out of the window as far as our attitude towards Israel is concerned. The Ten Commandments are the bedrock of our Judeo-Christian society. Yet, as the psalmist asks, “When law and order are being destroyed, what can godly people do?” (Psalm11:3 NIRV) Worse still, what if our religious leaders are also at fault? “The Church, which is supposed to be the guardian of God's law, ... to a great extent even paved the way for the widespread departure from God and His commandments.” So writes our late founder Mother Basilea Schlink.
Moreover, in her view Hitler Germany’s rejection of all things Jewish, like the Ten Commandments, is partly to blame for the Holocaust. "There was definitely something satanic behind it: a passionate rebellion against God Himself for having given us a conscience and for making us accountable to Him as Judge. Only the mind of a person possessed by hatred could say, as Hitler said … 'Conscience is a Jewish invention!' … It was hatred against God, because it was to the Jewish people that God had revealed Himself through His holy Ten Commandments, through His prophets, through Jesus and His apostles, thus appealing to the consciences of all human beings.” (Israel, My Chosen People: A German Confession Before God and the Jews, 1958)
Tragically, this same antagonism to the Ten Commandments can be seen today in our relationship to Israel. Take, for instance, the commandment against slander. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.” (Exodus 20:16 NIV) How does Britain measure up in view of the ICC ruling? And how about Exodus 23:2? “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.” (NIV)
Voices have been raised at the validity of the ICC arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. The USA has threatened sanctions on any nation complying with them. But the fact remains that Britain showed her true colours on November 21/22. Requests for the arrest warrants had first been made by the prosecutor in May. In July the present government dropped objections from their Tory predecessors to the ICC’s move.
Now in November when the ICC ruling is official, they have adopted a middle-of-the-road stance, insisting they respect international law. Such behaviour evokes memories of Nazi Germany. At the Nuremberg trials Nazi war criminals often insisted they were simply doing their duty. Natasha Hausdorff, barrister and expert on international law, observes that the courts in Nazi Germany pronounced many rulings that were technically, legally, sound but morally repugnant. “Easily led” is a common criticism of Germans. “Silence is complicity” is an oft-repeated comment in view of the nation as a whole.
But are we Britons any different?
Writing in the Telegraph, Tzipi Hotovely, Israel's Ambassador to the UK, explains the faulty nature of the ICC ruling, concluding, "The farcical ICC has reached an astonishing new low – all countries must reject it.”
Again, where does this put Britain? Our behaviour is a sad repetition of earlier failures, like abstaining at the UN 1948 vote for or against recognition of a modern state of Israel. Dithering does not excuse us. In our case, it amounts to betrayal.
Nations will one day stand at the tribunal of God and give account of how they treated Israel. We would do well to recall God’s Word. “Those who strive against you [Israel] shall be as nothing and shall perish.” (Isaiah 41:11 NIV) “Whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye.” (Zechariah 2:8 NIV)
Sister Anastasiais a member of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, an interdenominational, Lutheran-based religious order founded in Germany in 1947.