The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for war crimes against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the military wing of Hamas, Mohammed Deif, continues to generate mixed reactions around the world ( whom Israel believes it killed in a raid on Gaza).
In addition to the outraged reactions from Israel (Netanyahu immediately called the court’s decision “anti-Semitic” and said that it was an initiative “comparable to a modern Dreyfus trial”), US President Joe Biden called the arrest warrant, while the current head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, declared that arrest warrants must be respected and applied.
It should be noted immediately thateach has nothing to do with the other ongoing proceedings, also in The Hague but before the International Court of Justice, on the accusations against the State of Israel of committing “genocide” against the Palestinians, made mainly by South Africa. The International Criminal Court judges individuals, while the Court of Justice judges states.
The judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu, Gallant and Deif bear “criminal responsibility” for crimes committed during the war between Israel and Hamas. As he explains Chantal Meloniprofessor of International Criminal Law at the State University of Milan and author of the essay “Universal justice? Between States and the International Criminal Court: assessment of a promise” (il Mulino), “the situation of Palestine, which has returned to the foreground on the world stage after the serious attacks by Hamas on 7 October 2023, has been pending before the International Criminal Court for many years”. Already in 2009 the first Prosecutor of the Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, had started a preliminary examination of the Israeli military operation “Cast Lead”.
The Court was established in Rome on 17 July 1998, with the favorable vote of 120 states, 21 abstentions and 7 votes against (those of China, India, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, the United States and Turkey). States that recognize the jurisdiction of the Court are required to proceed with the arrest of the persons against whom the arrest warrant has been issued. This is a binding obligation, however ICC members do not always decide to carry out the mandates. Putin, wanted for war crimes in Ukraine, last September was welcomed with full honors in Mongolia (a member state of the Court) and in 2015 the Somali dictator Omar al-Bashir was not arrested during a visit to South Africa.
Today the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbanwhose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, announced that he will invite his Israeli counterpart Benyamin Netanyahu to protest against the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court. “We have no choice but to challenge this decision. I will invite” Netanyahu ” to come to Hungary, where I can assure him that the ICC ruling will have no effect,” he said in an interview with state radio. Salvini was joined by Matteo Salvini. “I plan to meet representatives of the Israeli government soon and if Netanyahu came to Italy he would be welcome. The war criminals are others.” Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said this on the sidelines of the Anci assembly. But for the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, “the mandate must be carried out”.
In any case, the arrest warrant is a serious blow to Israel’s reputation which, as written by Jerusalem Post“has been perceived over the years as a Western-style democratic state”. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz“Israel has lost the legal battle and has only one way to overcome this decision and its implications: recruit the next US administration to wage all-out war on the International Criminal Court.” A strategy that could work with Trump’s arrival in the White House.
