The ICC has finally issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. The fight is far from over.

Today, November 21, 2024, another brick in Israel’s Western-built wall of impunity has crumbled.

In a stunning decision rejecting all legal and jurisdictional challenges, defying Israeli threats, the harassment of Israel lobby trolls, and the obstruction of the U.S. government and Congress, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants for the arrest of two of Israel’s leaders. 

Acting unanimously, the pre-trial chamber of the ICC issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, both charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

In doing so, the judges have given the world a glimmer of hope that the international legal system is not dead yet, that Israel is not above the law, that the abusive power of U.S. empire is not without challenge, and that justice may indeed be on the horizon. But if that justice is to prevail, all who believe in justice must remain vigilant. 

The ICC warrants were issued after the longest delay in the Court’s history, during which Israeli and U.S. persecution of the court, slander of the Court by pro-Israel media and lobby proxies, and personnel shake-ups, were also unprecedented. 

But the glare of global public attention, its demands for justice, and the principled convictions of the ICC judges prevailed, at least for now. 

Rejecting legal challenges

While Israel was publicly smearing the court and working behind the scenes to obstruct justice, it also filed legal challenges to the ICC’s jurisdiction, claiming that the Court had no jurisdiction over the situation in Palestine or over Israeli nationals, since Israel had not consented to such jurisdiction. The Court rejected this claim out of hand, based on the “territorial jurisdiction of Palestine,” rooted in Palestine’s acceptance of the Court’s jurisdiction. 

Israel’s claim that it should have received additional process notifications was dismissed as well, owing to the fact that the required notification was, in fact, provided already in 2021 when the investigation was initiated, and Israel had declined to request a deferral. 

Secret warrants

Importantly, the ICC revealed that, while the pre-trial chamber designated the warrants as “secret” (to protect witnesses and the conduct of the investigation), it was compelled to make them public because “conduct similar to that addressed in the warrant of arrest appears to be ongoing”  and so that victims and their families may be made aware of the issuance of the warrants. 

The crimes

The warrants charge Netanyahu and Gallant as co-perpetrators of the war crimes of starvation and of intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population, and of the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza. They also accuse the two perpetrators of “intentionally and knowingly” depriving the civilian population in Gaza of food, water, medicine, and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity. And the ICC alleges that they unlawfully blocked and conditioned humanitarian aid to the besieged population of Gaza. 

In one stunning finding, while the Court did not yet charge extermination, it did accuse Netanyahu and Gallant of having “created conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza,” familiar legal language that could lead to later charges of genocide. 

What comes next

It is likely that more charges will follow, as the investigation proceeds. Many legal experts and genocide scholars expect that a charge of genocide may well be added, as more evidence is gathered and as the genocide case against the state of Israel proceeds across the Hague at the International Court of Justice. 

For their part, Israel and Netanyahu himself have rejected the warrants with the usual vitriol and smears against the Court. Netanyahu and Gallant are unlikely to surrender to the ICC, and Israel is unlikely to hand them over.

But they both woke up in a smaller world today, one in which they will be unable to travel to (or through) at least 124 countries, including many of their Western allies, as every one of these parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC is now obliged to arrest them and hand them over for trial. 

And, branded as indicted war criminals and perpetrators of crimes against humanity, their notorious standing on the world stage, and in history, is now assured. 

No doubt the U.S. and other lawless actors will jump to their defense, direct further threats and attacks against the Court, and seek to obstruct justice. 

But the world will continue to demand justice. And when the story of the horror of this genocide is ultimately written, this day will be recorded as the moment of another key breach in the wall of Israeli impunity.