Netanyahu responds to dismissal of ICC Prosecutor

Senior Israeli officials have reacted to the decision by member states of the International Criminal Court to dismiss its Prosecutor by alleging that he adopted a hostile position towards Israel specifically to deflect from accusations of sexual harassment made against him.

In a vote on Friday, 82 out of the 125 countries on the Special Session of the Assembly of States Parties voted to remove Karim Khan from his position, with only 13 countries understood to have voted to keep him in his position.

Mr Khan, a British lawyer who has served as the ICC’s Prosecutor since 2021, had been accused of sexually assaulting a member of his staff, with the alleged victim, a Malaysian lawyer, telling CNN last week that there had been “an escalation of attempts” by Khan, including physical assault. Khan has repeatedly denied all the allegations.

In May 2024, Khan filed arrest warrant applications with the ICC for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s former Defence Minister, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity. At the same time, the ICC Chief Prosecutor also issued arrest warrant applications for three Hamas senior leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif – all of whom have since been eliminated by Israel.

Karim Khan’s dismissal does not void the arrest warrant applications he has previously made which were approved by the court. In theory, any country which is a signatory of the ICC has the legal responsibility to arrest Netanyahu or Yaalon, should either of the two men come into such a country’s jurisdiction.

In response to the news of Khan’s dismissal, Benjamin Netanyahu said that he “welcomed” the move, and claimed that “this decision exposes the truth. Karim Khan was accused of sexually harassing women who worked under him. It was precisely as these allegations emerged that he cancelled his planned visit to Israel, abandoned his previous commitment to thoroughly examine Israel’s independent judicial system, and suddenly moved to pursue arrest warrants against me and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. He did so to divert attention from the allegations against him and to rally Israel’s enemies around him as a political shield. That shield has now been torn away.”

Netanyahu went on to say that “What has been exposed is not only Karim Khan’s true motivation, but also the profound injustice and corruption that have infected both the Office of the Prosecutor and the International Criminal Court itself. Last night, I spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He once again reaffirmed America’s determination to act forcefully against this institution—an institution that undermines justice, attacks democratic and sovereign nations, and seeks to subordinate their security to the decisions of unaccountable and corrupt officials in The Hague.”

Echoing Netanyahu’s comments, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that “the long-delayed removal of Karim Khan from the ICC for serious misconduct has exposed the moral bankruptcy of a corrupt Prosecutor who rushed to file scandalous arrest warrants against Israel’s PM and former DM, in an attempt to deflect from the serious misconduct he feared would be revealed.

“These were politicized and outrageous arrest warrants against elected leaders of a democracy with an independent legal system defending its citizens against terror. These warrants, issued against a country that is not even a member of the ICC, should never have been sought in the first place and should be revoked immediately.”

In theory, the ICC is only capable of issuing arrest warrants in areas that are under its jurisdiction. In 2015, the Palestinian Authority joined the ICC. Despite the fact that Gaza has not been under the control of the Palestinian Authority since the 2000s, the ICC decided that the alleged behaviour of Israel in the Gaza strip was nonetheless within its jurisdiction.