Following more than two decades of efforts on the part of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and other anti-Israel elements, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant. It is already clear to many leaders that seeking the arrest of the head of a democratic state while it is waging a justified war against a murderous terror organization puts the court to shame. The instruments mobilized against us now will be used in the future against other democracies in the service of terror organizations and dictatorships.
According to reports, the incoming Trump administration is considering severe sanctions against senior court officials, similar to the steps taken in 2020. However, Israel must not leave the Americans to battle the ICC alone. In recent days, two former Australian prime ministers, Tony Abbot and Scott Morrison, called on Australia to withdraw from the court due to the outrageous warrants. The leading candidate for the Canadian premiership, leader of the Conservative Party Pierre Poilievre, attacked Trudeau as “ridiculous” and “extreme” for declaring he would arrest Netanyahu and Galant if they visited Canada. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has already invited Netanyahu to Budapest and declared that his state rejects the warrants. Argentina’s President Javier Milei also announced he would not honor them. Israel must persistently work to persuade influential states to withdraw from the court. The ICC operates on the strength of its member states’ cooperation, and a withdrawal of major states would be a serious blow to it.
The Knesset must pass an Israeli version of the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act immediately. This law would authorize the government to use all the means at its disposal to release Israeli detainees. The arrest of Israeli officials or citizens would be considered an act of war. The law would prohibit all government agents from maintaining ties to the ICC, thus eliminating jurists’ temptation to play the court’s pseudo-legal game. The law should include the provision that any cooperation with the ICC on the part of Israeli non-profits would constitute a criminal offense. It is well known that extremist domestic organizations provide foreign countries with the personal details of Israeli citizens in order to prompt sanctions against them. The prime minister prevented the promotion of such a law in the past, but Israel cannot expect the Americans to protect it while it refuses to do the minimum needed for its own self-defense.
The incoming Trump administration understands that the US is next in line and how undeveloped states will weaponize the court to curtail America’s freedom of action. Therefore, we must call on the American administration to resist settling for symbolic sanctions but actively collapse the court. The Biden administration has already shown the way by issuing sanctions against Jewish sheepherders in Samaria. We expect the US to address the strategic harm to its most important ally with the same severity it addresses graffiti sprayed on Arab houses in Judea and Samaria.
The PA has worked methodically and determinedly to weaponize the ICC against Israel since before it was even established, without ever paying a price for doing so. The Palestinian attempt to isolate and alienate Israel must lead to their own isolation instead. Israel must prevent PA senior officials from traveling and the reception of state visits.
Israel must take meaningful action against states that commit to enforcing the arrest warrants. Spain, which declared it would arrest Netanyahu and Galant if they stepped foot on its soil, operates an unrecognized consulate in Jerusalem that refuses to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the city and serves as a de facto representative of the PA. It is high time to stop turning a blind eye to this consulate and order its complete shutdown, converting the building into an Israeli government office. France expressed a somewhat more moderate view; therefore, Israel should close the Jerusalem-based French culture center for Palestinians and clarify that the next step would be shuttering the French consulate in the city.
The ICC has failed at its noble task of holding international criminals to account. Israel now has a historic opportunity to expose the court’s derelictions of duty. Israel must fight back and work to dismantle the court with everything it has.
First published in Israel Hayom (“A historic opportunity to dismantle the ICC”, Jan 12, 2021).
