ICC rejects Israel's appeal to invalidate Netanyahu's arrest warrant

Tehran - BORNA - This decision came on Monday amid an ongoing investigation into war crimes in Palestine that has led to arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war minister Yoav Gallant for “crimes against humanity and war crimes” committed during the genocidal war on Gaza.

Israel has made several attempts to overturn these warrants, including questioning the impartiality of ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan and challenging the court's jurisdiction. The ICC's investigation, initiated in 2021 following a referral from Palestine, has recently expanded with additional referrals from seven other countries.

Israel contended that it should have received a formal notification about the new investigation based on Article 18(1) of the Rome Statute. However, the ICC ruled that the investigation into post-October 7 events fell under the original notice issued in 2021, negating the need for a new notification.

Legal experts, including Professor Kevin Jon Heller from the University of Copenhagen, commended the Appeals Chamber for rejecting Israel's claims.

He noted that Israel could have invoked the principle of complementarity but chose to assert that the ICC lacked jurisdiction.

“Israel only cares about Art. 18(1) now because the Prosecutor did what Israel was sure he wouldn't: actually seek arrest warrants for high-ranking government officials,” Heller wrote on X.

“Kudos to the Appeals Chamber for seeing through Israel's baseless arguments and dismissing the appeal.

"Kudos also to the Appeals Chamber for being brave enough to follow the law and reject Israel's appeal. We can only hope that doing so will not lead to another round of US sanctions,” wrote Heller, who also serves as special advisor on war crimes to the ICC prosecutor.

The ICC, a permanent war crimes tribunal with 125 member states, has faced longstanding scorn from US officials who argue it infringes upon national sovereignty. 

The latest ruling has also further implications, as the ICC's investigation into Israeli war crimes has previously resulted in sanctions from the United States against key ICC officials.

The sanctions threaten businesses and individuals with significant US fines and prison time for providing any support to the sanctioned individuals, prompting many to withdraw services.

Reports indicate that these sanctions are part of broader efforts to pressure the court regarding the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

In July, media outlets reported that the court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, received warnings that he and the ICC would be “destroyed” if the warrants were not retracted.

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also “threatened” Khan with sanctions if he applied for the warrants.

In May, Khan’s office announced he had taken a leave of absence pending the conclusion of a UN-led investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

His lawyers said he rejected all claims of wrongdoing and had only stepped aside temporarily due to intense media scrutiny.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 70,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured 171,000 others in the two-year war in Gaza that has reduced much of the blockaded Palestinian territory to rubble.

Experts say the Israeli regime, with the complicity of the US and Western states, has committed genocide against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

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