ICC May Issue Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu This Week On War Crimes Charges

Even without the charges having been filed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing publicly his country will not bow down to the will of the Court, while most western powers under Israel's control are lobbying – or in the case of the U.S., threatening – the ICC to back off.

Though it might seem the current war by fascist Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza, with the number of those the Israeli military has murdered now in excess of 34,000 just since October 7 of last year, would be the obvious target for a criminal investigation by the International Criminal Court, the investigation by the ICC against Israel is much broader than this and began long before the current phase of the war against Palestine, but it has also been muted and slow-moving at best.

The formal investigation by the International Criminal Court which could lead to arrest warrants being issued against Netanyahu launched on March 3, 2021. And while that is a full eighteen months before the October 7 invasion by Hamas into Israel which triggered the current carnage in Gaza and beyond, the period under scrutiny for this case dates from June 13, 2014, all the way to present day.

Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the Court when the investigation started in 2021, said at the time it would be investigating “crimes within the jurisdiction of the court that are alleged to have been committed” since that day in June 2014.

The significance of that date is that, on June 12, 2014, two supposed Hamas members in the Israeli-occupied territories of the West Bank kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers, not far from the Hebron hills. The crimes gave Israel the excuse to launch brutal and highly disproportionate attacks on innocent people living as peacefully as they could on the West Bank. Hamas also responded, with rockets fired from the West Bank into Israeli territory.

In the 50 days of war unleashed by Israel after the attacks, Israel killed at least 2,100 Palestinians and a total of 67 Israeli Defense Forces personnel plus five of its civilians died. At the time, it was one of the most vicious attacks carried out against the Palestinian people in at least twenty years.

Though the most vicious aspects of that war did come to end, tensions in the region remained high. One year after that war, multiple international commissions brought in to negotiate with the parties to bring a longer-term calm failed to do much to convince the Palestinian people Israel would not come after them again, using the smallest of allegations to trigger a much broader and bloody conflict. The U.S. was seen even then as openly defending Israel and doing its best to undermine any investigations as to who was really behind the deaths of the teenagers, and whether Israel had reacted far out of proportion to the crime. 

Israel is well known to kill its own people and blame it on Palestinians. 

It was then – in 2015 – that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, arranged with the International Criminal Court located at The Hague, Netherlands, a theoretically impartial court operating outside of the purview of the United States, to have Palestine become a signatory to the Rome Statute which governs the operation of the ICC. It took some convincing, including pursuing and ultimately securing a ruling by the ICC that the Israeli-occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank constituted enough of an independent political entity that it could become a signatory of the ICC.

That signatory status came into being in 2015. Abbas pushed for this initially out of frustration over all attempts at securing a genuine peace with Israel, which he blamed on the United States for consistently siding with Israel and undercutting any legitimate attempts to negotiate for the rights of Palestinians which Israel had been tromping on since the State of Israel was founded in May 1948. Abbas hoped Palestine signing on with the ICC would put pressure on the rest of the world to get involved in its cause, and that doing so might provide legal opportunities for going after Israel for its longstanding – and broadly understood to be illegal – policies of displacing legitimate Palestinian residents often with violence, additional settlement building, and occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.

Grounds for the ICC investigation first had to clear a hurdle that there were sufficient grounds to justify it carrying out its work. That finally happened in 2019, when the ICC ruled a preliminary investigation of war crimes by Israel and potentially some in Palestine demonstrated probable evidence of those criminal acts.

Prior to launching the current ICC investigation in March 2021, Bensouda also had to secure a ruling from the Court that the ICC had jurisdiction in the case. That is an important matter, considering that Palestine is not broadly recognized as a nation with its own integral rights, and that Israel is not and never was a signatory to the International Criminal Court. After filing papers with the court herself earlier in 2021, on February 5 of that year the Court ruled that, because Palestine signed on to be governed by the ICC several years earlier, and because its signatory rights had never been challenged by any other nations who had signed with the ICC, Palestine and the territories its people lived within under Israeli occupation were considered part of the Court’s legal territory for investigations and prosecutions.

A separate ruling by the ICC authorized Bensouda to go ahead with her investigations.

When she announced the work was beginning, she said her office would commit to carrying out their work “independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favor”.

“The decision to open an investigation followed a painstaking preliminary examination undertaken by my office that lasted close to five years,” her announcement stated began.

“In the end, our central concern must be for the victims of crimes – both Palestinian and Israel – arising from the long cycle of violence and insecurity that has caused deep suffering and despair on all sides,” she continued.

“My office will take the same principled, non-partisan approach that it has adopted in all situations over which its jurisdiction is seized,” she said in closing.

Soon after Bensouda made her statements in 2021, then as now Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a videotaped statement condemning the decision of the ICC to begin formal inquiries which could eventually result in criminal charges against him and others in Israel.

“The state of Israel is under attack this evening,” he told his public.

“The decision of the international court to open an investigation against Israel today for war crimes is absurd. It’s undiluted antisemitism and the height of hypocrisy,” he continued. “The ICC, which was established to prevent a repeat of the horrors the Nazis instigated against the Jewish people, now turns against the state of the Jewish people. Of course, it doesn’t say a word against Iran and Syria, and other tyrannical regimes, frequently committing real war crimes.”

The Palestinian Authority, representing the other side of the conflict, issued its own statement at the time welcoming the ICC probe.

“This long-awaited step serves Palestine’s vigorous effort to achieve justice and accountability as indispensable bases for peace,” the foreign ministry of the PA said in its own statement. It expressed hopes the ICC would conclude its investigation fast, because, it said, “the crimes committed by the occupation’s leaders against the Palestinian people are lasting, systematic and far-reaching.”

Based on the announcements made in 2021, the focus of the ICC Chief Prosecutor’s work involves potential war crimes carried out by Israel, Hamas, and Palestinians dating back to June 2014. The prosecutors would be focusing on the 2014 battles, another major outbreak in 2018, further attacks back and forth from 2020 and beyond, and the time between October 7, 2023, and present.

The work begun by Fatou Bensouda for the Court as of March 2021 was picked up by Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, Bensouda’s successor as Chief Prosecutor when he took over in June 2021.

Once in position, Khan first set up a dedicated team to carry out the Israel-Palestinian war crimes.

With little having been said about the investigation since that time, it came as a surprise last December when Khan told reporters during travel to Egypt in December 2023 that the criminal investigation started in 2021 was “moving forward at pace, with rigor.”

Also while in Egypt, Khan revealed some of his positions in the case, first by condemning the October 7 Hamas raid on Israel, including the killing of some and the taking of hostages. But immediately following that statement, he made it clear Israel’s follow-up actions in Gaza in response went far beyond anything remotely justifiable.

“The fact that innocent civilians are trapped under the weight of a war they cannot escape, and which is not their fault is not tenable,” he said.

Now, just three years and two months since the formal investigation began, Israel disclosed over the last week it has received information which suggests Netanyahu, some senior members of his staff which might include other ministers in his War Cabinet, and both past and present members of the Israeli Defense Forces may soon be charged with war crimes by the ICC.

If that is the case, Chief Prosecutor Khan is likely in the process of securing arrest warrants from the Court for those about to be charged. Those warrants must be approved by at least three judges on the court before they can be issued.

On April 26, matters were apparently clear enough for Netanyahu to warn his colleagues and the nation that some actions about to be taken by the International Criminal Court could create havoc for his country and world more generally.

“We will never stop defending ourselves,” he said, continuing to echo that argument for all the blood his soldiers have spilled to date against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. “Whereas decisions of the court in The Hague will not affect Israel’s actions, they would set a dangerous precedent threatening the soldiers and officials of any democracy fighting criminal terrorism and aggression.”

Netanyahu also issued a statement on the social media platform X summarizing his position, while at the same time revealing his fears that the ICC might also charge him and others with war crimes were close at hand.

“The threat to seize the soldiers and officials of the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state is outrageous. We will not bow to it,” he wrote.

Israel is not really a democracy but is certainly a Jewish state and Judaism is a religion of hatred and abuse of non-Jews. 

Rumors continued to spread about the possible warrants which might be issued. Multiple news reports in Israeli media said that warrants might be issued against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Lt. General Herzi Halevi, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces.

On April 28, matters were apparently clear enough to senior officials in the Netanyahu administration that Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz wired messages to its country’s embassies to prepare should the warrants be released.

Katz also issued a public statement about the possibility of criminal charges being filed.

“There is nothing more distorted than attempting to prevent Israel from defending itself against a murderous enemy openly calling for the destruction of the state of Israel,” he said. “If the warrants are issued, they will harm the commanders and soldiers of the IDF and provide a morale boost to the terrorist organization Hamas and the axis of radical Islam led by Iran against which we are fighting.”

Most of the people killed by Israel were peaceful women and children who had long suffered the abuse of Israel. Islamic terrorism is mostly a creation of Saudi Arabia, Israel and the CIA. Iran represents the more peaceful form of Islam. 

The U.S. originally sidestepped speaking about the ICC investigation by saying Washington would not interfere with the work of the Court. Now that that the possibility of charges being filed has become more “real” and imminent, that tone has changed dramatically, especially so as it is now believed Netanyahu is pressuring broken puppet Joe Biden into calling out the Court and taking actions against it before any warrants come out.

Yesterday, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a rabid pro-Israeli-genocide supporter and recipient of $95,000 in campaign donations from the American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) over the past year, called what the charges the ICC was about to file “disgraceful” and “lawless”.

"If unchallenged by the Biden administration, the ICC could create and assume unprecedented power to issue arrest warrants against American political leaders, American diplomats, and American military personnel," Johnson said in a statement.

Johnson called for the White House to "immediately and unequivocally demand that the ICC stand down", using “every available tool to prevent such an abomination."

House Democrat Ritchie Torres of New York and Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania have added their own idiotic bipartisan condemnation of the potential ICC action. Torres issued a statement demanding “strong consequences from both Congress and the President” if the warrants were issued.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas has already prepared a draft bill sanctioning official of the International Criminal Court if they do issue charges and arrest warrants as expected. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told the press he expects the House will prepare a similar bill in case something like that were to happen.

As for the official White House position, dementia-ridden Joe Biden has made no comment on the situation publicly, though sources say Netanyahu pushed him in a call between the two on the night of April 28 covering the continued genocide in Gaza and the ICC investigations.

Though Biden has stayed silent on the issue, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to a question about the rumors reaffirming the administration’s continuing rejection of both the ICC investigation and whatever actions it might plan to take.

“So, we've been really clear about the ICC investigation,” she answered. “We do not support it. We don't believe that they have the jurisdiction [needed to make the charges]. And I'm just gonna leave it there for now."

Leaders of the corrupt G7 group of nations are also understood to be standing with Israel on this matter. An unofficial statement made on behalf of the group declared this was precisely the wrong time to make such charges, especially with those leaders claiming the latest ceasefire proposal – which would allow for a 40 day pause in the Gaza war if Hamas were to give up 33 Israeli hostages – was a good one.

That proposal once again allows for Israel to continue with its slaughter when the pause is over. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the latest proposal “extraordinarily generous” and urged Hamas to support it.

It should be noted in all of this that the Israel is not the only party related to the International Criminal Court investigations in Gaza and the West Bank that is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court.

The United States is also not a signatory to the Court. Bill Clinton did sign off on the ICC agreements while president, but never submitted it to the Senate for approval as a Treaty as required by the U.S. Constitution. Then on May 6, 2002, while George W. Bush was president, the U.S. formally withdrew even its preliminary signature and declared it would not be signing off on the Rome Statute which created the International Criminal Court.

If Netanyahu or members of his administration and military are charged with war crimes, signatory nations to the Rome Statute which created the ICC would be obligated to arrest them if they entered their countries. 

While for some, the sign of arrest warrants being issued against Netanyahu and other ministers over what they have done might seem a positive development, the immediate result could be to cause Israel to accelerate its final "ethnic cleansing" of what's left of Gaza. The ICC has no direct authority to do anything other than to issue warrants on individuals, even if they have been proven guilty later in trial, all of which could push Netanyahu to "pull the trigger" on the Rafah plan faster than expected, including beginning the mass evacuation of the region this week or next.

The International Criminal Court has no connection with the United Nations' International Court of Justice, which is currently prosecuting the case of genocide against the state of Israel itself.

Many have criticized the ICC and accused its judges of being corrupt or cowardly. It had no problem quickly issuing an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, for "for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children during the Russo-Ukrainian War." Russia claims that the children were relocated for their own safety, which is probably true. Nor did the ICC hesitate to issue and arrest warrants for Russians Sergei Kobylash and Viktor Sokolov, an army lieutenant general and a navy admiral, both accused of being responsible for "missile strikes carried out by the forces under their command against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure". Israel's crimes are infinitely more heinous, inhuman, ongoing and accelerating, yet still no arrest warrants after 10 years.