ICC case against Netanyahu - what could happen next?

political analyst

On 21 November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) accepted prosecutor Karim Khan's application for arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the now-former defence minister Yoav Gallant regarding the Gaza war.

Later that day, on Channel 4 News (6 minutes and 5 seconds into the following video), now that the warrants have been granted, the human-rights lawyer and former UN war-crimes court judge Geoffrey Robertson said that, at the next stage, the prosecutor will seek indictments and that Netanyahu can choose to send lawyers to the ICC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3-L9GR8UvM

Can Netanyahu and Gallant appeal against the decision to grant the warrants? After all, the risk of a perverse ruling (e.g. Lord Justice Lane's refusal to quash the convictions of the Birmingham 6 in 1988) also exists in international courts.

Edit: As is stated in the following article, the accused can challenge the granting of an arrest warrant in the ICC.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/whats-next-after-icc-issued-arrest-warrants-against-israeli-leaders/

Furthermore, the ruling begs the question of whether, if a war started between Russia and NATO tomorrow and a city in the UK - Birmingham, for the sake of argument - was hit by a nuclear missile fired by Russia to intimidate NATO and then the Royal Navy fired a nuclear missile that destroyed a counter-value target (i.e. an equivalent city in Russia) in retaliation (Keir Starmer said before the general election earlier this year that he'd be prepared to push the nuclear button if it was necessary), Starmer would, like Putin, be the subject of an ICC arrest warrant.

Have most of the Western powers left themselves vulnerable in the event of a third world war? After all, the ICC makes no difference to Russia.

A350-900

What is the likelihood of an arrest?

StormForce13

What will happen next is that Netanyahu will continue murdering and persecuting innocent women and children in Gaza and Lebanon.

kabakuyu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122876183#Comment_122876183

There is no likelihood of an arrest ever.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122876183#Comment_122876183

I suspect the likelihood of an arrest is similar to the likelihood of Donald Trump making Kamala Harris the new AG.

cj maxx

exactly. The US will make it clear that that would not happen and Europe will obey . The only censure BN will get is in history books unfortunately

Peregrinus

All countries that are party to the ICC are obliged to execute the warrant. That's a lot of countries. It doesn't include the UK or Israel, but it does include most of Europe.

Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Slovenia, the UK, France and Italy have all said that they would comply with their obligations (even though some of them have criticised the issue of the warrant). Germany said that it will make no statement, one way or the other, unless and until Netenyahu comes to Germany (which is unlikely any time soon). Hungary has said they will not arrest him. I don't know if other countries have issued statements.

Probably most countries will issue no statement, one way or the other, about how they will respond to the warrant, should it become a live issue for them. Netenyahu will, I think, assume that any ICC member state may arrest him, unless they give an assurance, either publicly or privately to him, that they won't and so long as the warrant is outstanding he will choose which countries to visit on that basis. While we obviously have no way of knowing what private assurances he might have recieved, I think it's safe to say that for the forseeable future his holiday options are going to be largely confined to, to borrow the language of Donald Trump, the shithole countries of the world.

Madeoface

Well the Trump 'sanction' against the ICC was probably on the cards, he'd done something similar last time in office. I guess it's really a threat to other Western powers not to arrest Netanyahu.

As repugnant as the orange blobs' move was, watching a giddy, gurning mass murderer of civilians like Netanyahu giggle like a bold boy beside him was just as repugnant. He should be made accountable for any war crimes just like the repugnant Hamas leadership should be.