Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) has formally submitted a request to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, calling for the imposition of targeted sanctions against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in light of his direct responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts amounting to genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
AOHR UK has emphasised 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.
AOHR UK noted that the UK Government has previously affirmed its commitment to upholding international humanitarian law and its opposition to policies of settlement expansion and collective punishment. While sanctions have been imposed on certain Israeli ministers for incitement of violence in the West Bank, AOHR UK stressed that the scale and severity of ongoing war crimes and genocidal acts necessitate that accountability extend to the Prime Minister himself, as the primary decision-maker responsible for these policies.
AOHR UK warned that failure to take concrete action against Netanyahu, and the reliance on political statements alone, risks placing the United Kingdom in a position of political inconsistency, undermining the credibility of its human rights commitments and contributing to a culture of impunity. Such inaction sends a dangerous signal that grave violations may be tolerated when committed by political allies.
AOHR UK underscored that sanctions constitute a legitimate legal instrument aimed at ensuring deterrence, accountability, and the protection of civilians, and fulfilling the United Kingdom’s obligations to prevent the most serious violations of international law, particularly given the ineffectiveness of prior diplomatic measures in halting violations or altering Israeli conduct on the ground.
AOHR UK concluded that continued silence or hesitancy in confronting these violations would incur a substantial human and moral cost, and that justice cannot be selectively applied based on political considerations. The organisation therefore called upon the UK Government to take a clear, principled, and legally grounded step by imposing direct sanctions on Benjamin Netanyahu, consistent with its declared values, in respect of the rights of Palestinian victims, and to uphold the credibility of the international legal order.
