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| Israel’s president to visit London next Thursday for expected talks with ministers | Israel’s president to visit London next Thursday for expected talks with ministers |
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| Exclusive: Isaac Herzog will make trip just weeks before UK is planning to recognise statehood of Palestine | Exclusive: Isaac Herzog will make trip just weeks before UK is planning to recognise statehood of Palestine |
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| Israel’s president will visit London next Thursday just weeks before the UK is expected to recognise the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly, the Guardian understands. | Israel’s president will visit London next Thursday just weeks before the UK is expected to recognise the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly, the Guardian understands. |
| Two sources have confirmed Isaac Herzog is expected to meet UK ministers and senior political figures – the first time a senior Israeli leader has been in Britain since the foreign secretary, David Lammy, met his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa’ar, on an unannounced visit in the spring. | |
| However, any meeting between Herzog and Keir Starmer is likely to be hugely controversial within Labour amid the death, destruction and starvation wreaked by Israel’s war in Gaza. No 10 has not confirmed a meeting between Herzog and the prime minister. | However, any meeting between Herzog and Keir Starmer is likely to be hugely controversial within Labour amid the death, destruction and starvation wreaked by Israel’s war in Gaza. No 10 has not confirmed a meeting between Herzog and the prime minister. |
| Downing Street has previously indicated that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faces arrest if he travels to the UK after the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him over alleged war crimes in Gaza. | Downing Street has previously indicated that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faces arrest if he travels to the UK after the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him over alleged war crimes in Gaza. |
| Herzog, who is from a different political party to the prime minister, has a more ceremonial role and has previously clashed with Netanyahu over democratic and judicial changes but has broadly backed the military campaign in Gaza. | Herzog, who is from a different political party to the prime minister, has a more ceremonial role and has previously clashed with Netanyahu over democratic and judicial changes but has broadly backed the military campaign in Gaza. |
| Herzog has received particular attention for a statement he made where he asserted that all Palestinians in Gaza were “unequivocally” responsible for the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. “The entire [Palestinian] nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved,” said Herzog in October 2023. | |
| That statement was given additional weight when it was included in the international court of justice’s order of the 26 of January 2024 finding it was “plausible” that Israel had committed acts that violate the genocide convention and saying Israel must ensure “with immediate effect” that its forces not commit any of the acts prohibited by the convention and to protect Gaza’s population from further risk of genocide. | |
| Herzog claimed his statement was misrepresented by the ICJ in selectively quoting him. | |
| Starmer last met Herzog more than a year ago in Paris shortly after he was elected as prime minister, where he praised the “historic friendship between Israel and the United Kingdom” and reiterated the demand for the return of hostages and “support for Israel’s right to self-defence”. | Starmer last met Herzog more than a year ago in Paris shortly after he was elected as prime minister, where he praised the “historic friendship between Israel and the United Kingdom” and reiterated the demand for the return of hostages and “support for Israel’s right to self-defence”. |
| But Starmer and Lammy have since been far more vocally critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have killed more than 65,000 people, according to the territory’s health ministry. | |
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| Sanctions have been imposed on two hardline Israeli cabinet ministers and Starmer has announced plans alongside France to recognise the state of Palestine this September. However, there remains considerable anger and concern within Labour and elsewhere that the UK has done too little to halt the suffering of Palestinians. | |
| Last week the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said he planned to boycott a state dinner hosted by King Charles during Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK in a fortnight’s time – in protest at the US’s lack of pressure on Israel to end the war. | |