Six Months of Lies and Pressure: How US and Israeli Interference Stalled Netanyahu’s ICC Arrest Warrant

The ICC finally issued Netanyahu’s warrant, but only after surviving a barrage of threats, legal sabotage, and coordinated smears from Washington and Tel Aviv.

More than six months after the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor sought arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defense minister, a ruling was finally issued Thursday. In the interim, both Israel and the United States took unprecedented steps to obstruct the court’s decision-making process.

In May, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan publicly announced his request for warrants targeting three Hamas officials and two Israeli leaders. Khan accused Israel of crimes against humanity, describing the actions as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy.”

Israeli officials, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed the ICC’s actions with scorn. Netanyahu called the court anti-Semitic and remarked, “I’m not concerned at all about our status. I think the prosecutor should be concerned about his status.” His defense minister at the time, Yoav Gallant, denounced the charges as politically motivated.

In the weeks following the ICC prosecutor’s announcement, backlash against the court reached a fever pitch. Both U.S. and Israeli officials issued a barrage of threats and condemnations, prompting UN experts to release a statement decrying the escalating rhetoric. According to sources cited by Axios, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly turned to President Joe Biden, urging him to intervene and block the arrest warrants. Simultaneously, bipartisan voices in Congress began threatening retaliatory legislation against the ICC.

The pressure campaign soon escalated. Twelve Republican senators openly threatened the ICC with sanctions if its judges proceeded with warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Meanwhile, a wave of legal challenges poured in from Israel and allied nations, including the United Kingdom and Germany, seeking to undermine the prosecutor’s case.

Despite appeals from human rights groups urging the Biden administration to disavow the threats, there has been no such distancing. Incoming Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune recently went further, suggesting the U.S. should introduce sanctions legislation against the ICC—a measure he expects to materialize under a second Trump administration.

Such rhetoric advocating sanctions against the ICC is not new. During Donald Trump’s first term, similar threats were made, drawing sharp rebukes from prominent human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch.

Allegations of sexual misconduct against ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan have sparked controversy, with many viewing the accusations as politically motivated attempts to derail the court’s high-profile cases. Khan, accused of groping a female aide, has denied the claims but now faces an external investigation by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services. Critics argue that the timing of these allegations—coinciding with the ICC’s pursuit of arrest warrants for Israeli leaders—suggests a concerted effort to undermine the court’s work.

The Guardian reported allegations from unnamed ICC staff questioning the impartiality of the United Nations’ Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) in its investigation of Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan. These allegations, centered on Khan’s wife, Dato Shyamala Alagendra, who briefly worked with the OIOS four years ago, have been seized upon by critics of the ICC

Romanian Magistrate Iulia Motoc, one of three judges assigned to the Netanyahu case, abruptly resigned citing health reasons. Her replacement, Slovenian Judge Beti Hohler, was immediately met with an Israeli challenge to her impartiality, further stalling the ICC’s deliberations. Observers have noted a pattern of disruption, alleging a deliberate strategy to obstruct justice.

Reports from May 2024 revealed that former ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was subjected to a targeted harassment campaign by Israel’s Mossad during her investigation into war crimes in Palestine. The reports claimed that Mossad’s former chief, Yossi Cohen, acted as an “unofficial messenger” for then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, using covert threats to pressure Bensouda into dropping the case.

The timing of the allegations against ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has drawn scrutiny, with media coverage increasingly dominated by calls for his resignation. The New York Times ran a headline reading, “ICC Prosecutor Seeking Arrest of Israeli Leaders Faces Own Inquiry,” reflecting the intensity of the moment. As debates unfold across social media, any definitive judgment on the allegations remains fraught amid the charged political climate.

Six months after the International Criminal Court (ICC) submitted its request for arrest warrants against Hamas and Israeli officials, the landscape has shifted significantly. Israel has killed two of the Palestinians targeted by the investigation, and Yoav Gallant has been replaced as Defense Minister.

The contrast with the court’s swift action in issuing an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin—completed within a month—is striking. The protracted delay in the case of Gallant, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Hamas military leader Mohammed al-Deif underscores the intense U.S. and Israeli efforts to undermine the ICC’s work and question its legitimacy.

Feature photo | Demonstrators gather against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address at the United Nations General Assembly, September 26, 2024. Aashish Kiphayet | AP

Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47