\n<\/p>\n
The president of Israel will travel to London next week for a controversially timed trip amid outcry from Labour MPs who have urged Keir Starmer not to meet with the visiting delegation.<\/p>\n
The arrival of Isaac Herzog is fraught with complication for ministers, with the UK government on the brink of recognising the state of Palestine at the UN general assembly.<\/p>\n
Herzog is expected in the UK on Wednesday and Thursday \u2013 the first time a senior Israeli leader has been in Britain since the foreign secretary, David Lammy, met his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa\u2019ar, on an unannounced visit in the spring.<\/p>\n
A foreign leader of such seniority would normally expect to spend time with high-ranking government ministers, but any meeting between Herzog and Starmer would be hugely controversial within Labour amid Israel\u2019s ongoing military action in Gaza.<\/p>\n
No 10 has not confirmed any meeting between Herzog and the prime minister, and there are recent precedents for him not to do so, with Starmer having recently avoided a meeting with Bangladesh\u2019s chief adviser Muhammad Yunus.<\/p>\n
Downing Street sources suggested no appointments would be confirmed with any minister until next week but Labour MPs have already called on the government to avoid meeting with Herzog, saying any talks would send an ambiguous message about the UK\u2019s position on the Gaza war.<\/p>\n
Sarah Champion, the Labour MP and chair of the international development committee, said on X that she hoped it was inaccurate that ministers would meet the Israeli leader: \u201cThe UK\u2019s recognised the \u2018real risk\u2019 of genocide perpetuated by Israel, so unless this meeting is about peace, what message are we sending?\u201d<\/p>\n
John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, said Herzog should not be permitted entry to the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am appalled at the decision to allow this representative of a government that is systematically killing Palestinian children on a daily basis to visit our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prime minister is proving to be absolutely tone deaf to the desperate plight of the Palestinian people and the overwhelming feelings of revulsion of the British people at the brutality of the government Herzog represents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour MP Clive Lewis said Starmer should exercise extreme caution. \u201cDialogue is one thing, but there are times when the act of meeting itself becomes a political statement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly Herzog is not Netanyahu, their politics on many issues are at variance. But that said, the president\u2019s own words have helped legitimise the collective punishment of Palestinians, language that international jurists have warned could fall foul of the genocide convention.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs committee who has been a strong critic of Israel, said \u201cefforts should be made to engage\u201d with Herzog, who has often been at odds with Israel\u2019s hardline prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over domestic issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question must be asked \u2013 how do you see Israel in 10 years? What is the future for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza? If you have no reasonable alternative plan, Mr President, then there must be a Palestinian state,\u201d she told the Guardian.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the only solution to this is through politics, through discussion. Herzog is easier to talk to than many in the extreme rightwing government in Israel. But we mustn\u2019t pull our punches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrats\u2019 foreign affairs spokesperson, said Starmer should \u201cseize this chance to state unequivocally to president Herzog that there must be an end to the suffering in Gaza through an immediate ceasefire\u201d.<\/p>\n
Downing Street has previously indicated that 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.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n
Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Herzog, who is from a different political party to Netanyahu, 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.<\/p>\n The Israeli president has received particular attention for a statement in which he asserted that all Palestinians in Gaza were \u201cunequivocally\u201d responsible for the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cThe entire [Palestinian] nation out there \u2026 is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved,\u201d said Herzog in October 2023.<\/p>\n That statement was given additional weight when it was included in the international court of justice\u2019s order of 26 January 2024, finding the right of Palestinians to be protected from genocide was at \u201cimminent risk\u201d and saying Israel must ensure \u201cwith immediate effect\u201d that its forces not commit any of the acts prohibited by the genocide convention and to protect Gaza\u2019s population from genocide.<\/p>\n Herzog claimed his statement was misrepresented by the ICJ in selectively quoting him.<\/p>\n Starmer last met Herzog more than a year ago in Paris shortly after he was elected as prime minister, where he praised the \u201chistoric friendship between Israel and the United Kingdom\u201d and reiterated the demand for the return of hostages and \u201csupport for Israel\u2019s right to self-defence\u201d.<\/p>\n But Starmer and Lammy have since adopted a more critical position on Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza, which have killed more than 65,000 people, according to the territory\u2019s health ministry.<\/p>\n Sanctions have been imposed by the UK government on two hardline Israeli cabinet ministers and Starmer has announced plans alongside France to recognise the state of Palestine this month.<\/p>\n However, there remains considerable anger and concern within Labour and elsewhere that the UK has done too little to halt the suffering of Palestinians.<\/p>\n Last week the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said he planned to boycott a state dinner to be hosted by King Charles during Donald Trump\u2019s state visit to the UK in a fortnight\u2019s time \u2013 in protest at the US\u2019s lack of pressure on Israel to end the war.<\/p>\n Quick Guide<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.<\/p>\n If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/strong><\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS\/Android) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019. <\/p>\n SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post<\/strong><\/p>\n If you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.<\/p>\n Finally, our guide at theguardian.com\/tips\u00a0lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration: Guardian Design \/ Rich Cousins<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The president of Israel will travel to London next week for a controversially timed trip amid outcry from Labour MPs who have urged Keir Starmer not to meet with the visiting delegation. The arrival of Isaac Herzog is fraught with complication for ministers, with the UK government on the brink of recognising the state of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[258,2313,134,529,414,328,1059,1347,1774],"class_list":{"0":"post-19152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-foreign","9":"tag-israeli","10":"tag-labour","11":"tag-meet","12":"tag-mps","13":"tag-policy","14":"tag-president","15":"tag-starmer","16":"tag-visit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Contact us about this story<\/h4>\n