Boris Johnson has blasted the Metropolitan Police after the London force launched an appeal for witnesses of war crimes related to Israel’s anti-Hamas offensive.
Scotland Yard is asking eyewitnesses travelling through airports to report allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, in support of an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into Israel.
The move will add to growing distrust between British Jews and the Met Police after officers were filmed tearing down posters of Israeli hostages in Gaza on the grounds of reducing ‘community tensions’.
Posters produced by the Met’s counter-terror unit have been spotted at Heathrow and other airports, asking anyone who travelled to either Israel or Palestine and witnessed “terrorism, war crimes or crimes against humanity” to report them to the UK police.
The poster is written in Arabic, Hebrew and English.
The Telegraph reports that the Met has received over 40 referrals “in recent weeks”, and that the “vast majority of these allegations of war crimes” are against Israel.
Boris Johnson, who opposed the ICC investigation when he was Prime Minister, has now slammed the force.
He told the paper: “This sounds like a worrying politicisation of the Met Police – especially after Met officers were seen tearing down posters of Israeli hostages in Gaza”.
“When I was Mayor of London I made it clear that we would not import foreign wars or disputes onto the streets of London.
He pointedly suggested the Met “would be better off fighting knife crime in the capital”, than investigating war crimes halfway across the world.
A former Cabinet Minister also intervened demanding to know why the Met Police had got involved.
They said: “They have a lot of work to do domestically, while what’s happening in Israel and Gaza is a grey area right now.
“Counter-terrorism reports directly to the Home Secretary, and he would have been briefed on this.
“The Home Secretary should have offered guidance on whether this is an appropriate use of resources.”
Gideon Falter, the Chief Executive of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said the Met’s latest campaign is “utterly surreal”.
He said: “At a time when protesters are marching in London every week wearing Hamas-style headbands, shouting genocidal chants, calling for jihad against the Jewish state and inciting violent intifada with apparent impunity, the Met is concerned with acts of terrorism and allegations of war crimes halfway around the world, potentially even in contravention of the stated position of the British Government.
“The first duty and priority of Britain’s police must surely be the safety and well-being of British people in Britain. The Met cannot hide its abject failure to discharge that duty over the past three months by turning its attention to a foreign conflict.
“Britain’s cities have become no-go zones for Jews. Where are the Met’s posters addressing that unacceptable reality?”
A Met spokesman said the force must support the ICC investigation and has been doing so since 2019.
He said: “As the UK’s investigative authority for war crimes, counter-terrorism policing – through the Met’s war crimes team – has a responsibility to support ICC investigations. The ICC opened an investigation in 2019 into alleged war crimes in Israel and Palestine.
“Under the terms of the 1998 Rome Statute, our war crimes team is obliged to support any investigations opened by the ICC that could involve British subjects” and said the posters were put up to meet that obligation.”
