ICC Arrest Warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant: Is Accountability on the Horizon?
Photo of the International Criminal Court Building in The Hague, Netherlands by Jan van der Wolf
On Thursday, November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a historic ruling calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. The arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant are particularly significant since they are the first time the ICC has targeted senior officials from a Western-aligned nation.
The Israeli leaders are accused of "crimes against humanity and war crimes," in Gaza. These crimes include withholding vital resources needed for survival such as, “food, water, medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity,” alongside blocking humanitarian aid, and knowingly directing attacks against civilians—all clear violations of international law. The charges span from October 8, 2023, to May 20, 2024, and have emerged amidst a cascade of scathing reports on Israel’s conduct in Gaza from several credible organizations committed to maintaining international peace.
This historic move comes at a time when a United Nations committee stated that Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been consistent with genocide, largely due to its purposeful starvation of Palestinian civilians. In tandem with this ruling, a recent report from the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International found Israel guilty of genocide, with their Secretary General Agnès Callamard stating “Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.”
The most recent death toll indicates the Israeli military has killed around 45, 515 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023— the majority of these victims being women and children, with hundreds of thousands more suffering from displacement, illness, and injury. While these crimes against humanity appear to have no end in sight, the ICC’s arrest warrants mark an important shift in the international community's tolerance for these actions and growing changes in public opinion regarding Gaza.
The ICC, established in 2002 under the Rome Statute, is tasked with prosecuting individuals for the gravest offenses: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of aggression. While 124 nations are party to the Rome Statute, key states like Israel, the U.S., China, and Russia have refused to join, significantly hindering the ICC's enforcement capabilities.
Furthermore, the ICC has faced strong opposition and outright hostility from the United States. In 2020, the Trump administration imposed severe sanctions on ICC officials, including then-Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, in retaliation for investigating U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. These sanctions froze assets and banned family entry for ICC officials, infringing on their abilities and unabashedly undermining the court's purpose.
While President Biden lifted these sanctions in 2021, the U.S. continues to dismiss the ICC’s jurisdiction, with the Biden administration’s stance on the latest ruling against Israeli officials being dubbed as “outrageous.” The U.S. has further reinforced its support for Israel, despite extensive evidence documenting the Israeli leadership's blatant disregard for human life in its conduct in Gaza. Biden has also shown no signs of slowing support for Israel, both in message and through military aid, as he stated "There is no equivalence—none—between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security."
Additionally, Republican lawmakers like Senator Lindsey Graham went further, calling the court a "dangerous joke" and threatening sanctions against any ally cooperating with the ICC.
In a powerful opening address on Monday, December 2nd — ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane responded to these threats of sanctions from the U.S., stating, “The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions from institutions of another permanent member of the Security Council as if it was a terrorist organization."
Despite the U.S. attempts at undermining the court, the implications of the ICC warrants remain significant. If any of the accused set foot in a member state, that nation is obligated to arrest and surrender them to the court. Some member states, including Canada, Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands, have pledged to comply with ICC rulings. While others, like France, have said it would "respect its obligations" but are still taking into consideration Netanyahu's immunity possibilities. This stance aligns with the hesitation expressed by other European countries, such as Germany, in upholding these arrest warrants.
While the ICC’s actions against Netanyahu and Gallant indicate a growing willingness to hold Western-allied figures accountable, they also expose deep flaws in the global justice system. Words from an op-ed by journalist and author Ramzy Baroud have stuck with me in light of this ruling, as he noted that the ICC’s decision reflects “a desperate Western attempt at salvaging whatever little credibility it had maintained up to that moment.”
Further, Al Jazeera columnist Belén Fernández critiqued the structural impunity granted to Israel, stating, “At the end of the day, the state of Israel as a whole bears criminal responsibility for usurping Palestinian land and engaging in 76.5 years (and counting) of ethnic cleansing, displacement, and massacres.”
As the conflict in Gaza continues, the ICC’s arrest warrants mark a historic step toward accountability, but justice for Palestinians remains uncertain. With the U.S. continuously backing Israel despite mounting evidence of atrocities, the international legal system’s ability to hold powerful nations and their allies accountable is further called into question. This moment serves as a litmus test for the global community’s commitment to justice and whether our institutions, both nationally and internationally, truly uphold the foundational laws that they espouse.