International Criminal Court responds to Israel's challenge due to arrest warrants

Spokesman for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague Fadi El Abdallah has commented on Israel's intention to challenge the arrest warrants.

The arrest warrants were issued by the court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Caliber.Az reports via Israeli media.

Israel intends to challenge the legality of the arrest warrants on the grounds that it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, and therefore, the court's jurisdiction does not extend to its territory. This is the primary and central argument in Israel's appeal. 

"We don't need Israel to recognise the authority of our court. We have already discussed this issue. It is enough for the State of Palestine to recognise our jurisdiction. These arrest warrants are for crimes committed on the territory of the State of Palestine, which is a party to the Rome Statute. That is sufficient for the legitimacy of the arrest warrants," the spokesman said. 

El Abdallah was asked why The Hague acted so quickly with the arrest warrants and did not allow Israel, which has a strong and independent judicial system, to investigate the allegations of war crimes on its own.

"It is not enough to have an independent judicial system; it is also necessary for it to operate in the direction prescribed by the ICC. To apply the principle of complementarity, we should know that genuine investigations are being conducted into the alleged crimes," he noted.

When asked whether the establishment of a state investigation commission in Israel would be sufficient for the court to suspend or even cancel the warrants, he replied, "This should be discussed during the judicial process. The ICC may need to assess how genuine the investigations are." 

On November 27, just hours before the deadline for filing an appeal against the issuance of arrest warrants, Netanyahu decided not to ignore the ICC but instead to submit an appeal. 

Until the last moment, it was unclear whether Israel would attempt to challenge the issuance of the arrest warrants. Many legal experts pointed out the complexities of such a move, as an appeal can only be filed with the same court. This indirectly implies that Israel would be acknowledging the court's jurisdiction. After consulting with legal advisors, Netanyahu decided to go ahead and submit the appeal.  

The appeal will not address the substance of the charges underlying the arrest warrants, but will focus on the issue of Israel's lack of jurisdiction, as it is not a party to the Rome Statute and, therefore, the court has no authority to judge crimes committed on its territory. However, the Palestinian Authority is a signatory to the Rome Statute, and it considers the Gaza Strip to be its territory.   However, the Palestinian Authority is not a state.

The Oslo Accords do not grant the Authority’s courts the jurisdiction to handle cases involving Israelis, and in this instance, that is exactly what is happening—using the ICC as a "contractor." According to Israeli lawyers, the ICC has no authority to judge crimes committed on the territory of the Palestinian Authority either.

By Naila Huseynova