Israel nervous about reports that International Criminal Court is preparing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu

Prime Minister Netanyahu has already lashed out at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on social media and warned of a ‘dangerous precedent’. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has warned Israeli embassies worldwide that they must tighten security and be prepared for a “wave of serious anti-Semitism” if those arrest warrants are indeed issued.

The arrest warrants are said to be related, among other things, to Israel’s response to the Hamas-led bloody attack on Israeli territory on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and some 250 Israelis and foreigners were taken as hostages to Gaza. Israel then invaded Gaza and caused enormous destruction, killing more than 34,000 Palestinians. Even US President Joe Biden, Israel’s most important ally, recently called this response “over the top.”

Israeli senior officials are said to have The New York Times could also be summoned for their refusal to allow food shipments to pass into Gaza, where most of the Palestinian population is displaced and completely dependent on outside aid. The ICC is also said to be considering issuing arrest warrants for Hamas leaders in connection with the bloody October 7 attack.

Moral blow

Israel is particularly concerned about the dent that the arrest warrants would make to the country’s image, and about possible reactions to it. The New York Times says it has spoken to five officials who wish to remain anonymous. According to them, arrest warrants would be seen “in much of the world” as a moral blow to Israel, which has already faced months of international backlash for its behavior in Gaza.

Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote on social media that any intervention by the ICC “would set a dangerous precedent and threaten soldiers and officials of all democracies fighting gross terrorism and excessive aggression.” He threatened that as long as he is prime minister, “Israel would never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inalienable right to self-defense.” According to Netanyahu, “the threat to arrest the soldiers and leaders of the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state is unprecedented.”

It is not certain whether the ICC will indeed issue arrest warrants. Neither the ICC nor its prosecutor Karim Khan wants to respond to the increasing reports from Israel. Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that he expects that the arrest warrants will not be issued. According to The Times of Israel a major diplomatic offensive is underway under the leadership of the United States to dissuade the ICC from the plan, and the Jerusalem Post tries to calm the mood by reporting that the ICC cannot do anything ‘without US approval’.

Legal loss of face

Haaretz reports, however, that ICC Chief Prosecutor may issue arrest warrants as early as ‘this week’. That would not mean that the defendants would be arrested immediately; the US and Israel are not part of the 124 member states that support the ICC and can ignore the arrest warrants. However, when traveling abroad, an arrest warrant does become a problem, because countries that are on the list of 124 are obliged to arrest summoned persons. This significantly limits their freedom of movement abroad. Countries can waive this obligation, although this always leads to diplomatic and political fuss.

Israel has suffered legal loss of face before. South Africa had filed a complaint against Israel at another international court in The Hague, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging that the country was guilty of ‘genocide’ of Palestinians in Gaza. After hearing the parties, the ICJ urged Israel to ensure that its forces do not commit genocide, and that Israel also punish incitement to genocide.

The ICC is the only international court with the power to prosecute individuals accused of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. In the past, it has issued arrest warrants against Sudan’s ex-president Omar al Bashir for war crimes and against Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine. If Netanyahu, Gallant and Halevi are also summoned, they will be mentioned in the same breath, and that alone is ‘deeply stigmatizing’, concludes The New York Times Monday.