ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant

November 22, 2024

by: Akiva van Koningsveld and Joshua Marks ~ JNS

Friday, 22 November 2024 | The International Criminal Court [ICC] has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the tribunal in the Hague announced on Thursday afternoon.

The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber “issued warrants of arrest for two individuals, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr. Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least October 8, 2023 until at least May 20, 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest,” it confirmed in a statement.

In a separate statement, the court ordered the arrest of Mohammed Deif, the supreme commander of Hamas’s military wing, who according to the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] was killed in an airstrike on July 13.

The court said it had found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.”

The Chamber said that there were also “reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear responsibility for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population,” though it noted that ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan had only provided information about two incidents that the court said were directed against civilians.

The Hague rejected Jerusalem’s challenges regarding jurisdiction, claiming that the court can exercise its authority based on the Palestinian Authority’s [PA] membership. It also ruled that countries are not entitled to dispute the ICC’s jurisdiction before the issuance of arrest warrants.

Regarding Deif, the court said it had “reasonable grounds to believe that senior leaders of Hamas, comprising at least Mr. Deif, Mr. [Yahya] Sinwar, and Mr. [Ismail] Haniyeh, agreed to jointly carry out the 7 October 2023 Operation.”

Khan had initially filed for warrants against former Hamas political leader Haniyeh and Hamas terrorist chief in Gaza Sinwar but dropped the legal proceedings after their deaths on July 31 and October 16, respectively.

Roughly 1,200 civilians were murdered by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. Thousands more were wounded and 251 others were taken into the Gaza Strip.

The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel as Jerusalem is not a signatory to the Rome Statute. But in a legalistic sleight of hand, the court has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, even though no such state is recognized under international law.

The 123 countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute are obligated to act on any arrest warrant it issues, raising the possibility that Netanyahu and Gallant could be placed under arrest while visiting these places.

‘Geopolitical Bombshell’

“It’s a geopolitical bombshell. It’s the first time the court has issued arrest warrants against a Western country and also the first time that they are issuing arrest warrants when there’s no jurisdiction in the case, but they’ve invented it for themselves,” NGO Monitor legal advisor Anne Herzberg told JNS, adding that it was “outrageous.”

Herzberg said that the ICC’s decision should be placed in a political context given the results of the recent US election, which put skeptical Republicans in charge of the executive and legislative branches of government.

“Clearly, I believe the court acted because they know the Trump administration’s coming in a few weeks and it’s going to have an incredibly hostile stance toward the court,” she said, noting that Senate leaders had issued a statement on Wednesday to the effect that they were considering sanctions against the court.

She said the decision must also be examined in terms of its potential consequences for the 101 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza.

“Is this going to make a hostage deal now even more unlikely? Because again, [they’re] putting all the pressure on Israel, there’s no pressure on the other side, there’s no pressure on Iran, nothing happens to these countries, to Iran, to Qatar, for supporting Hamas. And they’re placing all the blame on Israel. So again…we see these international institutions that are basically enabling a terror war against Israel,” she said.

While stressing that it is not likely that Netanyahu and Gallant will actually be arrested, the warrants have severe implications because the two men won’t be able to travel to Europe for fear of arrest.

Eugene Kontorovich, professor at the George Mason University Scalia Law School, and director of the international law department at the Kohelet Policy Forum, a Jerusalem think tank, told JNS: “An illegitimate court issued arrest warrants against a non-state member, on behalf of a non-existent state, for fake crimes based on unsubstantiated reports.

“Israel’s allies should sanction this illegitimate court,” Kontorovich said.

Avi Bell, a law professor at the University of San Diego and Bar-Ilan University, told JNS: “This is the culmination of a 15-year process, a collaboration between the ICC and the PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organization] to bring up Israelis on fake charges. And the only reason I hesitate saying the word ‘culmination’ is because it’s not the end. They’re going to keep going and bringing further charges against more Israelis as we go along.”

He noted that the court’s timing was peculiar, given that the ICC prosecutor is accused of sexual misconduct and trying to suppress those claims, and Israel questioning the impartiality of an incoming judge on the panel, who came from the prosecutor’s office.

“Israel should be very, very aggressive in its moves against the court,” Bell said.

(Editor’s note: Prime Minister Netanyahu issued the following statement on November 21, 2024 in response to the warrant.)“The antisemitic decision of the international court in the Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way.

One hundred and thirty years ago, the French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of treason by a biased French court.

In response of these false accusations, the great French writer Émile Zola wrote his monumental essay, J’Accuse.

He accused the French court of antisemitic lies against an innocent officer, who was later exonerated of all guilt.

Now, an international court in the Hague, also headed by a French judge, is repeating this outrageous offense.

It is falsely accusing me, the democratically elected prime minister of the State of Israel and Israel’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant, of deliberately targeting civilians, this when we do everything in our power to avoid civilian casualties. 

We issue millions of text messages, phone calls, leaflets to the citizens of Gaza to get them out of harm’s way—while the Hamas terrorists do everything in their power to keep them in harm’s way, including shooting them, using them as human shields.

 The court in the Hague accuses us of a deliberate policy of starvation. This, when we have supplied Gaza with 700,000 tons of food to feed the people of Gaza. That’s 3,200 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza. 

And these supplies are routinely looted by Hamas terrorists, who deprive their people of much needed food.

Yet just in the last few weeks Israel facilitated the vaccination of 97 percent of the people of Gaza against polio. This doesn’t prevent the court of accusing us of genocide.

What in G-d’s name are they talking about in the Hague? 

The truth is simple. No war is more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza after Hamas attacked us unprovoked, launching the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. 

The decision to issue an arrest warrant against me, the democratically elected prime minister of the State of Israel, and our former defense minister was made by a rogue prosecutor who is trying to extricate himself from sexual harassment charges, and by biased judges who are motivated by antisemitic sentiments against the one and only Jewish state.

These judges did nothing, they did nothing, against the real war crimes committed against the millions who have been murdered or uprooted by the dictatorships in Iran, Syria and Yemen.

Instead, they falsely accuse the one democracy in the Middle East, Israel, thereby imperiling the right of all democracies to defend themselves against murderous terrorists and tyrants.

 Nor did the court do anything against the Hamas terrorists who raped our women, beheaded our men, burned babies alive in front of their parents and kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children to the underground dungeons of Gaza. They’re still holding 101 hostages, citizens of many lands, including the United States. 

Come to think of it, the court did issue one arrest warrant against Hamas.

Now hear this. They issued an arrest warrant against the corpse of the Hamas arch-terrorist, Muhammad Deif. His corpse.

What an absurdity.

No biased anti-Israel decision in the Hague will prevent the State of Israel from defending its citizens.

I want to thank our many friends around the world, especially those in the US, who have condemned this outrage and who have said this decision will have severe consequences for the ICC and those who cooperate with its decision.

Israel does not, Israel will not recognize the validity of this decision. We will continue to do everything we must do to defend our citizens and to defend our state against Iran’s axis of terror. Iran and its terrorist proxies, which include Hamas, Hezbollah the Houthis and others. Our enemies are your enemies, and our victory will be your victory, the victory of civilization over barbarism and tyranny.”

Posted on November 22, 2024

Source: (Excerpt of an article originally published by the Jewish News Syndicate on November 21, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/jns.org