these other leaders targeted by arrest warrants

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been the target of an international arrest warrant since Thursday for war crimes and crimes against humanity. But other international leaders, and even certain heads of state, are wanted by the International Criminal Court.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on Thursday, November 21, against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, and the head of the armed wing of Hamas, Mohammed Deif. The Criminal Court speaks of war crimes and crimes against humanity. There are also charges against Hamas: hostage-taking and rape.

Of the 56 warrants issued since the creation of the ICC in 2002, only 21 have been executed. Benjamin Netanyahu knows that circumventing ICC arrest warrants is not impossible. Before him, other heads of state were sought. Among those in office, it was the Sudanese Omar al-Bashir who was the first to openly defy the Court, notably by going to Egypt, a signatory to the Treaty of Rome, while he was wanted. Since deposed, he remains in Sudan, where the current authorities, despite their promises, have still not handed him over to the ICC.

But the most emblematic case is probably Vladimir Putin. Under an arrest warrant since March 2023 for war crimes in Ukraine, the Russian president has certainly had to review his travels. He has given up on going to the Brics summit in Johannesburg or more recently the G20 in Rio. But in September, he gave an arm of honor to international justice by being welcomed with honors in Mongolia, stuck between China and Russia, two countries which do not recognize the ICC. Mongolia, still under Soviet influence, preferred to break its legal commitment to the ICC than to disappoint its powerful neighbor.

Benjamin Netanyahu can also count, for example, on the United States, which has not ratified the Treaty of Rome, to welcome him. He also knows that this arrest warrant will not prevent him from being received by senior UN officials if these contacts are essential for security or war issues.