UK delayed the ICC decision on arrest warrants for Israeli officials

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision over potential arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, will be delayed for weeks after the UK requested a review by the court on whether it has jurisdiction over Israeli citizens.

News ID: 84714

Date: 30 June 2024 - 16:17

TEHRAN (defapress) - The request by the UK tracks closely with arguments made by the Israeli government that international agreements take precedence over the ICC. The Oslo Accords stipulated that the Palestinian Authority has no criminal jurisdiction over Israelis. Since the Palestinian Authority requested that the ICC open an investigation, Israel argues that it violated the agreement.

The UK holds a special “friend of the court” status that enabled them to issue the request. Israel is unable to because it is not a member of the court. One of the Israeli papers, who first reported on the UK request said that “it is believed that the UK’s move was made at Israel’s request,” and speculated that other countries are being recruited to support the UK review.

The UK submitted the request on July 10, the court gave the country until July 12 to file any comments. That means the arrest warrants, if they come at all, will be delayed until at least then and likely longer. The decision will be taken by a three-judge panel. If they rule that the court does not have jurisdiction over Israeli citizens, the court would be unable to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant or any other Israeli official. This decision was made while they were putting pressure on Hamas officials to obey the ICC decision.