Could the Oslo Accords prevent the International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant? This is what the United Kingdom claims in a request addressed to the judges of the pre-trial chamber. These magistrates are responsible for validating the warrants requested on May 20 by the prosecutor Karim Khan against the Israeli prime minister and his defense minister, for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Gaza since October 8, 2023.
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Three weeks later, in a document filed on 10 June before the Court and made public on Thursday 27 June, the United Kingdom requested to intervene in the proceedings, as amicus curiae (“friend of the court”). a friend are meant to enlighten the judges on a factual or legal point in a case. In this case, the United Kingdom claims that issuing arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant would violate the Oslo Accords. On Thursday evening, the judges granted London permission to submit a brief by July 12.
Are we witnessing manoeuvres designed to gain time? The judges have in any case limited the size of the brief to ten pages – that is not much – and invited those who would like to follow in the British footsteps to make this known by 12 July. to limit the impact » of the British request on ” the speed of the current stage of the procedure ».
Intervene as a last resort
According to Foreign Office legal adviser Sally Langrish, ” the Oslo Accords clearly state that Palestine has no criminal jurisdiction » on Israeli nationals and that, therefore, Palestine cannot “delegate its criminal jurisdiction to the Court”. The question was already on the table of the judges who, when examining requests for warrants, must also rule on the jurisdiction of the Court.
The announcement by prosecutor Karim Khan on May 20 was not greeted with enthusiasm by Israel’s allies, particularly in the West. On June 6, responding to questions from France 2 journalists who asked him about this subject, President Emmanuel Macron first recalled that “ warrants are not yet issued “, and assured that ” all this will take[it] time ».
Then, recalling that Israel must respect the rules of war, the head of state assured that if the mandate was issued, he would continue ” to call, to see, to work with Prime Minister Netanyahu for as long as he is Prime Minister of Israel, because it is essential”. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, welcomed the prosecutor’s initiative, while recalling that the Court would rule “ taking into account the principle of complementarity and the possible action of Israeli courts “. The Court only intervenes as a last resort, when a State cannot or does not want to judge on its soil for logistical or political reasons. Israel could judge at home, Paris said, like Germany in particular. But to convince the Court, Israel should conduct effective investigations into the same facts, against the same suspects.
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