The International Criminal Court (ICC) has become a kangaroo court that has been weaponised by Israel’s enemies to smear the Jewish state, forcing Israel to defend itself from false accusations.
This week, Israel earned a procedural victory over the ICC as all five judges of the Appeals Chambers of the ICC agreed with Israel’s assertion that it had a right to appeal the jurisdiction of the court, effectively pausing the anti-Israel trial at the court.
CUFI has long supported Israel’s position that the ICC has no legal jurisdiction over any part of Israel or the Palestinian territories, and therefore, this trial against Israel, headed by South Africa, should never have seen the light of day.
The ICC not only went ahead with its sham trial, but the head of the ICC, Karim Khan (who has strong anti-Israel views) went as far as issuing arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, who was Israel’s Defence Minister at the time.
Every action the ICC took resulted in Israel being demonised on the world’s stage. To this day, people wrongly quote ICC rulings as being “proof” that Israel is “committing genocide”, and Israel’s leadership has been restricted in travel because spineless governments (including the UK) have said they would abide by the ICC’s arrest warrants. All of this was to harm Israel.
Thankfully, Israel is not just standing by. It is defending itself against these heinous acts.
The reason Israel has the legal right to challenge the ICC is because the terms of the Oslo Accords, which were signed by both Israel and the Palestinians, explicitly deny any Palestinian entity legal jurisdiction over Israeli nationals. So the Palestinian Authority never had the right to delegate jurisdiction to the ICC in the first place.
When the ICC announced an investigation into Israel in 2021, Israel raised this very issue, but the court ignored Israel and ruled it would only decide on “further questions of jurisdiction” if and when the prosecutor filed requests for arrest warrants for Israelis.
However, even after Khan’s request for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were issued, the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I asserted it was too early to consider such arguments.
As you can see, those who hate Israel were doing everything in their power to keep this sham court case alive and were willing to bend rules and rulings in order to stop Israel’s legal challenges.
Thankfully, the Appeals Chamber ruled this week that the Pre-Trial Chamber I had an obligation to consider the jurisdictional challenge by Israel, pointing out that the 2021 ruling had said explicitly that “issues pertaining to the impact of the Oslo Agreements on the Court’s jurisdiction ‘may be raised by interested States…’ at a later stage.”
The Appeals Chamber added that the lower chamber had therefore “committed an error of law” by failing to sufficiently deal with Israel’s arguments about its right to challenge the court’s jurisdiction.
All five judges voted in Israel’s favour for this first ruling – it was unanimous.
In its second appeal, Israel argued that ICC prosecutor Karim Khan failed to issue a new notification about the Gaza investigation, instead relying on a 2021 notice related to a different case, despite the court’s own rules requiring proper notice so states can investigate their own citizens. This time the judges voted 3-2 in favour of Israel.
An aide close to Netanyahu said the decision “highlights the injustice done to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the former defence minister, when the Court issued absurd warrants without having the authority to do so.” The source added that “Israel expects the [ICC] to cancel the warrants immediately.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said: “The [ICC] warrants were issued unlawfully. They are null and void,” adding that the ICC “doesn’t have, and never had jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister and its former Minister of Defense.”
Sa’ar said the Appeals Court “instructed the Court today, to do what it should have done from the start: to make a determination with respect to jurisdiction. On this topic, there is only one correct answer: the Court has no jurisdiction over Israel.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said the ICC “operates as a political tool serving Israel’s enemies,” adding, “When international institutions punish democracies and ignore terrorism, they harm not only Israel but the very values on which the free world is built,” in a statement from his office.
The ICC has been under growing criticism from many who see it drifting from its founding purpose. Instead of focusing on the world’s worst war criminals, the Court has allowed itself to be weaponised by those with political motives; many of them hostile to Israel’s very existence.
Israel is not committing genocide. IDF forces are fighting a just war against Hamas terror. In fact, Israel is defending itself from those who seek genocide against Israel.
Let us not forget: Hamas is a brutal terrorist organisation whose purpose is to wipe out Israel and to murder Jews worldwide, and it uses its own women and children as human shields in order to achieve these aims. If the ICC had any moral backbone, it would be focusing on Hamas, not Israel.
Praise God that Israel won both of its appeals and that some of the ICC’s bogus practices have been exposed.
Now, let’s pray the court case is thrown out altogether and that the arrest warrants are rescinded.
“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.”
Isaiah 54:16-17
