A heated debate has erupted across British politics after two senior party leaders added their voices to growing demands that the UK government track and monitor British citizens who have served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), following allegations of widespread war crimes and genocide in Gaza.
Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were among the high-profile signatories of an open letter coordinated by investigative outlet Declassified UK, addressed to UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. The letter calls on authorities to systematically track the movements of British nationals who have served in the IDF, and implement mandatory secondary screening for these individuals at UK ports of entry when deemed necessary. It also pushes for full, rigorous war crimes investigations that adhere to both domestic UK legislation and international legal frameworks.
Current data suggests that approximately 2,000 British-Israeli dual nationals have served in the IDF during Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, a conflict that a United Nations commission of inquiry formally ruled constituted genocide in 2024. Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel, Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians, injured more than 170,000, and left thousands more unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of destroyed civilian infrastructure.
In the text of the open letter, signatories — a cross-group coalition of politicians, legal professionals, human rights advocates, journalists, and other public figures — argue that monitoring the entry of IDF-serving dual British nationals into the UK and investigating potential ties to war crimes serves a clear public interest. The letter notes that many of these individuals have returned to the UK after fighting in Gaza and now reside in British communities, even holding positions in public institutions including hospitals, law enforcement agencies, and schools. It adds, “Nobody wants to live next to a potential war criminal – not least members of the Palestinian community in the UK who have family or friends who have been subjected to war crimes.”
This latest push for action comes after London’s Metropolitan Police sparked outrage in April 2025 when it announced it would not open investigations into 10 British nationals accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their service with the IDF in Gaza. The decision came more than a year after the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the UK-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) submitted a 240-page evidence dossier to the Metropolitan Police’s dedicated War Crimes Team. The dossier outlined detailed allegations that the 10 British nationals, a number of whom hold dual UK-Israeli citizenship, participated in targeted killings of civilian bystanders and humanitarian aid workers, carried out indiscriminate strikes on densely populated civilian areas, attacked hospitals and other protected civilian sites, and aided in the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians. In justifying its refusal to move forward with the case, the Met claimed there was no realistic prospect of securing a conviction and that a thorough, effective investigation could not be completed.
Alongside Polanski and Corbyn, the open letter has secured support from multiple sitting UK parliamentarians, including independent lawmakers and high-profile Labour Party rebels John McDonnell and Diane Abbott.
The move has drawn fierce condemnation from opponents on the opposite side of the political and ideological spectrum. Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake criticized the initiative in an interview with The Telegraph, arguing that “At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise, Zack Polanski should not be stoking further division and hostility in our society.” The Board of Deputies of British Jews, a leading UK Jewish community organization that has publicly backed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, echoed that criticism, saying the letter represented “another attempt to demonise Israelis and promote an atmosphere of intimidation against British Jews.”
In response to the backlash, a spokesperson for Polanski defended the call for action, noting that the IDF has faced credible, well-documented allegations of catastrophic war crimes in Gaza from leading global human rights bodies including the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. The spokesperson emphasized that “the UK Government should be taking robust action against any British citizen complicit in these crimes.”
The renewed debate comes amid escalating Israeli military operations in Gaza. Data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health recorded 119 Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli forces in May 2025, marking the highest single-month death toll since November 2024. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that the IDF continues to expand its territorial control across Gaza, currently holding roughly 60 percent of the enclave with plans to push that figure to 70 percent in coming operations.