Netanyahu and Gallant Head to The Hague: A Small, Belated Step Toward Justice

And the International Criminal Court has done it.

It issued arrest warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024 in Palestine’s Gaza.

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The ICC also issued a similar arrest warrant for Mohamed El-Deif, the commander of Al-Kassam, the military arm of Hamas in Gaza.

It is a historical move by all measures.

This is the first time the ICC has targeted high-ranking Israeli officials, including a sitting Prime Minister.

It is not the first time the ICC has investigated Israeli war crimes. It previously examined allegations of war crimes during the Lebanon war in 2006 and the Gaza conflicts in 2008–2009 and 2014-2015.

However, despite detailed reports documenting war crimes, no charges were brought forward.

The last time an ICC prosecutor attempted to investigate Israeli crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank was in 2015 when former ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda opened an investigation. However, she was unable to proceed, allegedly due to threats from the former head of Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency. According to an investigative report by The Guardian and Israeli outlet +972 Magazine, he pressured her in a series of secret meetings to abandon the war crimes investigation.

Current ICC prosecutor Karim Khan is already facing pressure and he spoke about those pressures openly. 

Weeks before arrest warrants were issued for Netanyahu and Gallant, Khan was accused of sexual misconduct. The ICC announced that it was investigating the allegations.

Khan was not alone in making the decision to issue the arrest warrants; the judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber, which is responsible for reviewing such warrants, made it.

These judges are Nicolas Guillou (France), Reine Alapini-Gansou (Benin), and Beti Hohler (Slovenia). Israeli government accused Judge Hohler of being impartial because she worked in the ICC prosecutor's office. Both ICC and Hohler dismissed the Israeli allegations.

Netanyahu and Gallant are considered the highest-ranking Middle East officials wanted by the ICC following its arrest warrant against Sudan’s former president and longtime strongman Omar Al-Bashir for war crimes committed in Darfur.

There were other investigations into war crimes committed in Libya and Syria, these cases have not yet resulted in formal warrants due to geopolitical complexities or lack of ICC jurisdiction.

You might wonder about Hamas. Mohamed El-Deif also received an arrest warrant, but it’s not as if he’ll be travelling anytime soon.

Both Mohamed El-Deif and Yahya Sinwar were fully aware they were effectively "dead men walking" when they planned and executed the October 7 attack. They knew that even if their demands were met—such as the release of all Palestinian captives and detainees by the Israeli government—they would still be relentlessly hunted and killed.

Sinwar has already been killed, and before him, Haniyeh was also killed. Interestingly, Israel has claimed several times in the past that Mohamed El-Deif had been killed too.

The case of the ICC arrest warrant is different from the case of South Africa against Israel in front of the International Court of Justice.

We must also thank South Africa, which, on November 17, 2023, co-filed with Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, and Djibouti a referral of the situation in the State of Palestine to the ICC prosecutor's office.

Additionally, we should thank Chile and Mexico for submitting a further referral to the ICC prosecutor's office on January 18, 2024.

Yes, it was technically the globe south that stood with the Palestinians.

Now Benjamin Netanyahu and ironically his nemesis Yoav Gallant should be and will be arrested if they set foot in 124 countries.

Under the Rome Statute, 124 member states are obligated to arrest and surrender Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant if they enter their territories or even their airspaces.

The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the ICC, creating a legal framework for the prosecution of individuals accused of committing the most serious international crimes, including genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes of aggression.

Currently, the 124 member states of the Rome Statute include 33 African countries, 19 from the Asia-Pacific, 19 from Eastern Europe, 28 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 25 from Western Europe, which are considered the "most important."

Yes, Bibi and Gallant can't even enter the airspace of 124 countries or pass through it, theoretically. Maybe they'll now understand the meaning of "siege"—or maybe not. Radical nationalists rarely grasp the irony.

Ironically, Netanyahu and Gallant can travel freely in most Arab countries, as the majority of these nations have neither signed nor ratified the Rome Statute.

The only Arab countries that have signed and ratified the treaty are Tunisia, Comoros, and ironically, Jordan and Palestine.

Yes, Palestine is a member of the ICC. This is one of the few significant decisions made by Mahmoud Abbas ("Abu Mazen").

Given this, Netanyahu and Gallant could theoretically be arrested if they set foot in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Gaza.

It is a shame that most Arab countries, including Egypt, have not fully joined the treaty, largely due to fears of political targeting.

Egypt signed the Rome Statute on December 26, 2000, but has not ratified it yet.

The world is currently watching the double standards of the United States defending Netanyahu when it cheered for the ICC’s arrest warrant issued for Vladimir Putin.

Netanyahu and Gallant won’t get arrested except if there is a miracle but let’s all agree that the ICC arrest warrant is actually a belated small step towards justice thanks to the globe South.