Israel responds to ICC: You have no jurisdiction over us

Israel responds to ICC: You have no jurisdiction over us

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The International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes. This is what the government plans to respond to in a letter to The Hague, the top ministers decided on Thursday.

The answer is in line with Israel’s long-standing position on the issue.

Israel is not a member of the ICC and has a policy of not cooperating with it, so it was unclear whether the government would respond at all to the letter that prosecutor Fatou Bensouda sent to the Jewish state last month.

The Israeli argument is based on the court’s own rules, which state that member states are involved in the cases, and that they do not intervene in countries with judicial cases that can justify the crimes against humanity. Israel has pointed to its own independent judiciary that can prosecute soldiers who commit war crimes.

Although the Palestinian Authority is part of the Rome Statute established by the ICC, Israel has argued that it is not a state and therefore cannot legally be a member of the court. The PA lodged the complaint against Israel which led to the investigation.

These arguments were repeated by eight ICC member states: Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Brazil, Uganda, Austria, Australia and Canada.

Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and Defense Minister Benny Gantz met for the second time on Thursday, one day before the deadline for Israel to respond to Bensouda’s letter. Also the Minister of Education, Yoav Gallant, the Minister of Energy and Water, Yuval Steinitz, the Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, the head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben-Shabbat, the head of the IDF, military lawyer, Sharon Afek, was also at the meeting.

Last month, Bensouda announced that she would open a war crimes investigation against Israel. The investigation is expected to include 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, the riots at the Gaza border in 2018, and the settlement enterprise, including East Jerusalem. Among the senior officials who may be vulnerable to war crimes are Netanyahu and Gantz, who were IDF chiefs of staff in 2014, as well as hundreds of IDF officers.

Labor leader Merav Michaeli said ‘the government should have worked day and night to ensure that such a decision would never be taken by The Hague, but it is failing to fulfill its duty.

“Netanyahu’s behavior could be costly for IDF officers and soldiers,” she warned. “Netanyahu is endangering Israel; Netanyahu must go.”

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