Israel tries duck-and-deny as ICC noose tightens

Alameen Templeton
Israel is taking no chances – it’s decided to challenge the legality of the International Court of Justice’s arrest warrants for its leaders while rallying its western allies in a bid to hamstring the court and to shut down the prosecution altogether.
Even as it Friday announced it had formally challenged the warrants requested in May against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and military minister Yoav Gallant, news emerged that Israel was also trying the sabotage the whole process.
They’ve sent letters to 25 unidentified nations, asking them to formally join Britain’s lone challenge to Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request to the court to issue the arrest warrants. Four months have now passed, and still the court delays its decision.
Quashing any chances
The ICC prosecutor’s request also includes Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Deif, all accused of “war crimes and crimes against humanity.” However, Khan dropped the request for Haniyeh following his martyrdom in Tehran.
Israeli government sources told Walla! “if these countries, or even some of them, send such a legal opinion to the court in The Hague, the judges may be convinced that there is no chance of responding to the Prosecutor General’s request”.
So, the Israelis want to quash any chances to any hearing happening or the spectacle of their leaders arraigned in the witness box on genocide charges.
Israel is trying to push back against a wave of support the ICC enjoyed in June following revelation Israel had conducted a nine-year intimidation and sabotage campaign against the court.
Workhorses bolt the stable
So, Israel may find its requests to its 25 anonymous allies falling on fallow ground. Ninety three members of the UNs 124 members signed a statement supporting the ICC after Israel’s sabotage against the court was revealed.
Crucially, significant workhorses in America’s stable – Britain, France, Germany and Canada – were among the signatories.
Several media outlets had revealed the Israelis had deployed for nearly a decade their intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries.
The Guardian reported in late May: “Israeli intelligence captured the communications of numerous ICC officials, including Khan and his predecessor as prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, intercepting phone calls, messages, emails and documents.
“The surveillance was ongoing in recent months, providing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with advance knowledge of the prosecutor’s intentions. A recent intercepted communication suggested that Khan wanted to issue arrest warrants against Israelis but was under ‘tremendous pressure from the United States’, according to a source familiar with its contents.
Netanyahu ‘obsessed’ with ICC
“Bensouda, who as chief prosecutor opened the ICC’s investigation in 2021, paving the way for last week’s (request for arrest warrants against Israel’s and Hamas’s leaders), was also spied on and allegedly threatened.
“Netanyahu has taken a close interest in the intelligence operations against the ICC, and was described by one intelligence source as being “obsessed” with intercepts about the case. Overseen by his national security advisers, the efforts involved the domestic spy agency, the Shin Bet, as well as the military’s intelligence directorate, Aman, and cyber-intelligence division, Unit 8200. Intelligence gleaned from intercepts was, sources said, disseminated to government ministries of justice, foreign affairs and strategic affairs.
“A covert operation against Bensouda, revealed on Tuesday by the Guardian, was run personally by Netanyahu’s close ally Yossi Cohen, who was at the time the director of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad. At one stage, the spy chief even enlisted the help of the then president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila.”
Threats to retaliate
The revelations followed a May 3 call by Khan for the court to be allowed to operate without investigations into Israel’s genocidal activities.
US lawmakers issued threats to retaliate against the ICC “as well as those who cooperate with it” after it emerged the court was daring to investigate Israeli officials.
Khan pointed out in his statement that such actions are illegal under international law. NGOs banded together to point out intimidation of the court was “prohibited under international law and is a flagrant violation of the rights of all persons to communicate and cooperate with international bodies”.
The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) condemned “threats by US Republican lawmakers of retaliation and sanctions against the International Criminal Court, its prosecutor, Karim Khan, his associates, and their families over the decision to seek arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials accused of war crimes in Gaza”.

‘Impunity for war crimes’
ISHR’s director Phil Lynch expressed concern that “representives of the Biden Administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security advisor Jake Sullivan, have said that the Administration is willing to work with Congress to enact potential penalties against the ICC in response to the application for an arrest warrant against senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu”.
Such threats violated “violate international law and amount to support for impunity for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. We call on all States to refrain from and unequivocally condemn such threats. We also call on relevant UN officials to investigate and publicly report on such threats as prohibited acts of intimidation or reprisal,” Lynch said.
‘International law, and the credibility of States that invoke it, is at a critical juncture. We call on the US and all States to stand on the side of victims’ rights, justice and accountability, not on the side of lawlessness, atrocities and impunity,” he added.