Human rights group applies for UK sanctions on Netanyahu

A UK human rights group has formally applied to the government for sanctions against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for “incitement to commit genocide”.

Lawyers for the Arab Organisation for Human Rights UK (AOHRUK) have lodged the application with the Foreign Office today, 20 January 2026. In it, AOHRUK demands financial sanctions and a travel ban on Netanyahu, a wanted war criminal and the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC). The application is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.

The UK government has so far refused to confirm that it would arrest Netanyahu if he arrived in the UK, despite its obligation to do so under the ICC’s warrant. The Starmer regime has given immunity to a number of other senior Israeli officials for them to visit either openly or secretly.

Wanted war criminal Netanyahu

In its announcement of its action, AOHRUK said that its request is:

supported by an extensive body of documented evidence demonstrating that Netanyahu, as Israel’s highest executive authority, has directed and overseen military and security policies resulting in the large-scale killing of Palestinian civilians, the deliberate use of starvation as a method of warfare, and the systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, humanitarian facilities, journalists, and relief personnel. These actions have been compounded by the continuation of a suffocating blockade and the obstruction of essential aid, notwithstanding repeated international warnings.

AOHR UK further emphasised that these violations have persisted despite the declaration of a ceasefire. Unlawful military operations have continued, attacks on civilians have been sustained, and the humanitarian crisis has deepened, confirming that the policies led by Netanyahu constitute a deliberate strategy of collective punishment, extensive destruction, and the systematic undermining of Palestinian civilian life, rather than isolated military errors.

AOHR UK also highlighted that Netanyahu has played a central role in consolidating and expanding illegal settlement activity in the West Bank, endorsing and facilitating settler violence, and entrenching a discriminatory system that renders Palestinian life increasingly untenable, in direct contravention of repeated international appeals to halt settlement expansion and to protect civilians from escalating assaults.

The group warns Starmer and his foreign secretary Yvette Cooper that their failure to take “concrete action” against the wanted war criminal will undermine “the credibility of its human rights commitments and contribut[e] to a culture of impunity [sending] a dangerous signal that grave violations may be tolerated when committed by political allies.”

The Foreign Office had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Featured image via the Canary