A cross-party coalition of more than 70 British members of Parliament and House of Lords peers has launched a formal call for the UK government to impose targeted sanctions on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top Israeli justice official Yariv Levin, citing documented systemic abuse of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli government.
According to reporting from Sky News, the open letter dated last week, addressed to newly appointed UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, bears the signatures of 71 legislators from across the UK’s political spectrum. The campaign is led by sitting Labour MP Neil Duncan-Jordan, and already includes backing from 30 Labour MPs and seven Labour peers — a notable showing of dissent within the ruling party.
In the text of the letter, parliamentarians argue that direct responsibility for the widespread, systematically documented torture of Palestinian civilians rests at the highest level of the Israeli government, with Prime Minister Netanyahu personally implicated. The group is calling on Cooper to take immediate action to end what they describe as enduring impunity for senior Israeli leaders by imposing sanctions on both Netanyahu and Levin, who holds multiple senior government roles including deputy prime minister, justice minister and interior minister.
The letter notes that UK sanctions imposed last year on far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, while a welcome step, have failed to shift the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinian detainees. Lawmakers add that the situation has since escalated dramatically, with perpetrators of abuse acting with near-total immunity from accountability.
To back their claims, the letter cites a February 2024 United Nations report that concluded torture has become a core, institutionalized component of Israel’s occupation, inflicted systematically on Palestinian men, women and children through both in-custody abuse and a broader campaign of forced displacement, mass killing, systemic deprivation and destruction of critical infrastructure needed for daily life. It also highlights a recent controversial incident in which Netanyahu publicly praised the decision to dismiss military rape charges against Israeli soldiers accused of assaulting a Palestinian detainee.
Additionally, legislators point to the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla bound for Gaza by Israeli forces two months prior, during which multiple British citizens were detained while operating in international waters. Along with Labour signatories, the letter draws support from members of the Green Party, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Féin, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish National Party, and one Conservative Member of Parliament, demonstrating rare cross-party consensus on the need for tougher action against Israeli leaders.
In response to the letter, a spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office acknowledged the severity of the allegations, telling Sky News that “the reports of mistreatment of detainees by Israeli forces are disgraceful and we have raised this issue with the Israeli government.” The spokesperson added that all detainees are required to be treated humanely in line with the requirements of international law, and that all credible allegations of torture and abuse must be subject to full, impartial investigation. The UK, they confirmed, continues to pressure the Israeli government to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross immediate and unfettered access to all Israeli detention facilities, and called the prolonged detention of hundreds of Palestinian children without charge “completely unacceptable.”
The latest call for accountability aligns with mounting international scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian detainees. In March 2024, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, presented a report to the UN Human Rights Council describing Israel’s prison system as “a laboratory of calculated cruelty,” documenting extreme abuses including the sexual assault of Palestinian detainees with bottles, metal rods and knives.
Since Israel launched its large-scale military operation in Gaza in October 2023, more than 100 Palestinian detainees have been confirmed dead in Israeli custody, independent monitors report. Analysts widely view this number as a significant undercount, with the actual death toll believed to be far higher. This pressure comes after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, charging both with war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from actions in Gaza since the start of the current conflict.