Israel has rejected the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for its prime minister and defense minister over their conduct of the war in Gaza, in filings to the court made late last month that were reclassified as public on Friday.
The Israeli filings rejecting the warrants are based on technical grounds, not on the substance of the claims. They do not address the questions raised by the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, about whether the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, may be guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their prosecution of the war in Gaza.
Instead, the documents challenge the court’s jurisdiction, arguing that Mr. Khan failed to provide sufficient notice of the scope of his inquiry or to give Israel time to show that it is capable of independently investigating the same matters. Under the treaty setting up the International Criminal Court, which Israel is not a party to, a case could be inadmissible in the court if it is already being or will be investigated by a state with jurisdiction over it.
That means if Israel has the ability to conduct its own investigation into the actions underlying the accusations against Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant, the International Criminal Court in theory could give precedence to the country’s judicial system, allowing it the opportunity to address the claims.
In this case, Israel has argued that Mr. Khan did not provide enough information about what he was investigating, nor did he give Israel the chance to show it would inquire into the allegations itself.
“Despite having been forced into a bloody conflict that it did not want, Israel remains a democracy endowed with an independent judiciary and deeply committed to the rule of law,” the Israeli filing argued, adding that Israel “has the appropriate mechanisms” to ensure accountability for any alleged crimes.
