The Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that it had filed two requests with the judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday, September 20. The documents challenge the arrest warrant requests issued by prosecutor Karim Khan on May 20. They target Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas officials, including Yahya Sinwar. This is the first time that the Jewish state has formally addressed the judges of the Court.
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” The State ofIsrael today filed its formal challenge to the jurisdictional competence of the ICC [dans cette affaire] as well as the legality of the prosecutor’s request ” wrote Oren Marmorstein, spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, in a message on the social network X.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested in May international arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant and several Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel since the start of hostilities launched by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7.
Against this decision, “ Israel has submitted two comprehensive legal opinions “, writes Oren Marmorstein. First, ” Israel stressed that the ICC clearly lacked jurisdiction over the case. “, Mr. Marmorstein said. In the other, the spokesman added, Israel details “ the Prosecutor’s violations of the Court’s statute and the principle of complementarity, in that he failed to provide Israel with an opportunity to exercise its right to investigate on its own the accusations made by the Prosecutor ” before he brought his request before the judges.
” A multitude of leading states […] Organizations and experts around the world share the positions presented by Israel “, assures Oren Marmorstein, according to whom ” No other democracy with an independent and respected judiciary such as Israel’s has been treated so prejudicially by the prosecutor. » of the court sitting in The Hague.
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Israel’s lawyers in contact with the International Criminal Court for years
Since the opening of the investigation in March 2021, Israel has never officially participated in the Court’s proceedings. The Hebrew state is not a member of the ICC, and as such, the Israeli authorities have always refused to appear officially in the proceedings, recalls our correspondent in The Hague, Stephanie Maupas.
On several occasions since the Palestinian Authority joined the Court in 2015, Israel has intervened through intermediaries. Allied countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom have defended its positions, as have many more or less serious think tanks.
This does not prevent Israel’s lawyers from being in constant contact with the Court and have been for years. But only once has the attorney general intervened officially. He had submitted a legal opinion to the former prosecutor in December 2019 when she announced her intention to open an investigation.
During his visit to Israel in late November 2023, Karim Khan had travelled as a private citizen, it was insisted. The judges have no deadline to consider Israel’s two requests. And The Hague is still awaiting their decision on the arrest warrants.
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