MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / July 28, 2024
Poll finds plurality of support in several countries, as well as a wish for an arrest warrant to be issued for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
A majority in the UK, Italy and Spain support the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant application against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alongside a plurality in several other European countries and the US, according to a new poll.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced in May that he was applying for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, alongside three senior Hamas officials: Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar.
On Monday, YouGov published a poll in which it asked the public in several countries if it supported the arrest warrants for each Israeli and Hamas leader named by Khan.
A majority of 57 percent in Italy and Spain, and 54 percent in the UK, said they supported the arrest warrant targeting Netanyahu. No higher than 15 percent in those countries said they did not support it.
A plurality in France, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the US also said that they backed the arrest warrant.
Respondents were also asked how likely it was that Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes during the course of the conflict, which began with the Hamas-led attacks in October.
Majorities in all those countries, ranging from 63 to 74 percent, said Israel had likely committed war crimes, except in the US where 49 percent said it likely had, almost double the 26 percent in the US who did not think it had.
Big majorities in all the countries surveyed also said that Hamas had likely carried out war crimes.
In all countries surveyed by YouGov, a majority of respondents backed an arrest warrant for Sinwar, the top Hamas leader in Gaza.
In the UK, 65 percent of respondents said they supported an arrest warrant for Sinwar, compared to 63 percent in Sweden and Spain, and 61 percent in Germany and the United States.
More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, the majority of them women and children. A Lancet letter said the toll when all related deaths are factored in could be as high as 186,000.
On Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK would drop the previous government’s objection to the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, saying it was a matter for the court.
Sources within the Labour Party had told Middle East Eye about the plans on Thursday, along with the party’s intention to restrict arms sales to Israel over its war on Gaza.
