Biden Admin Raises Questions About Netanyahu ICC Arrest Warrant

The Biden administration on Monday raised questions about the application from the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor for arrest warrants for both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States rejects the ICC prosecutor's announcement for arrest warrants for Netanyahu along with Sinwar, adding that there are "deeply troubling process questions."

"We reject the Prosecutor's equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a bruta organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans," Blinken said in the statement.

Context

Division remains amid the Israel-Hamas war, which began after the Palestinian militant group launched thousands of missiles from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes in Gaza. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Associated Press said. The rising death toll has led to international calls for a ceasefire.

Karim Khan, the ICC's chief prosecutor, shared the news of the arrest warrants with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday. In a statement posted on the ICC website, Khan said: "Israel, like all states, has a right to take action to defend its population. That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any state of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law."

"We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population," he said.

In addition, Khan said that the court was also seeking warrants for Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as two other top Hamas leaders—Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al-Qassam Brigades, better known as Mohammed Deif, as well as Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' political leader.

The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant were laid out as "causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict."

Meanwhile, the charges against Sinwar, and other Hamas leaders, include "extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention."

What We Know

Blinken stated on Monday that the United States "has been clear since well before the current conflict that the ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter."

"The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the prosecutor's rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed," Blinken said.

Blinken noted how Israel was prepared to cooperate with Khan, adding that the prosecutor was scheduled to visit Israel next week to hear from the Israeli government.

"Despite not being a member of the court, Israel was prepared to cooperate with the prosecutor. In fact, the prosecutor himself was scheduled to visit Israel as early as next week to discuss the investigation and hear from the Israeli government. These and other circumstances call into question the legitimacy and credibility of this investigation," Blinken said.

Newsweek has reached out to the White House and the ICC via email for comment.

Views

Blinken said the arrest warrant for Netanyahu could jeopardize efforts for a ceasefire agreement.

"Fundamentally, this does nothing to help, and could jeopardize, ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would get hostages out and surge humanitarian assistance in, which are the goals of the United States continues to pursue relentlessly," he wrote.

Anne Herzberg, legal adviser of the pro-Israeli NGO Monitor, condemned the decision to pursue Israeli officials as "abhorrent."

"While it is unlikely any Israeli would ever appear before this kangaroo court, this case represents yet again the exploitation of international institutions in service of malevolent agendas," Herzberg previously said in a statement to Newsweek.

Khan said that since last year, he had consistently said that under international humanitarian law, Israel needed to take urgent action to allow access to aid in Gaza.

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet with Netanyahu and Gallant, called Khan's push for arrest warrants "in itself a crime of historic proportion to be remembered for generations."

Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the nonprofit Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), previously told Newsweek in a statement: "The arrest warrants for Israeli and Palestinian officials is a milestone in accountability in the face of decades of impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine."

What's Next?

According to the AP, an ICC panel will now consider Khan's application for the arrest warrants, a decision that is likely to take two months to make.

Update 05/20/24, 1:50 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.

Update 05/20/24, 2:14 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.

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