Israeli Government Lashes Out at ICC as Leaked Documents Reveal Secret Links to UK Lobby Group

The Israeli Government’s attacks on international human rights organisations that have been critical of Tel Aviv continue to escalate as leaked documents point to secret cooperation between a pro-Israel group in the UK and the Israeli government.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is under enormous pressure, from Israel and its Western allies, to drop the arrest warrants issued several weeks ago against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. 

Last week Judge Tomoko Akane, the president of the ICC, said threats facing the institution, including possible US sanctions and Russian warrants for staff members, “jeopardised its very existence”.

During the annual conference of the court’s 124 members, Akane said the Court had been subjected to attacks – seeking to undermine its legitimacy and ability to administer justice and realise international law and fundamental rights – including “coercive measures, threats, pressure and acts of sabotage”.

Additionally, more warrants have been issued against court employees.

Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said in his speech to the conference that it was clear by any metric, by any benchmark, that this assembly was at a pivotal time.

Khan is currently being investigated for accusations of sexual misconduct by an external inquiry.

The threats against the ICC were made by the US and Russia.

“Outrageous” was how US President Joe Biden described the ICC charges against the Israeli premier and former defence minister.

Earlier in the year the US House of Representatives passed a bill to sanction the court in response to Khan’s request for arrest warrants against the Israeli leaders.

Washington is currently working on a list of ICC officials whom they plan to sanction.

The US threats also included sanctions against its allies if they, as they are required to do as signatories to the Rome Statute, arrest Gallant or Netanyahu should the two step foot on their soil.

However, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Senior Fellow, David J. Scheffer, warned that “given the membership in the ICC of almost all US allies and friends across the globe, any US initiatives to penalise the ICC or member governments supporting it could undermine other vital American interests with those allies and friends and embolden such adversaries as the Russians and Hamas.”

Critics have labelled the US’ behaviour as hypocritical, especially in light of the Biden administration, and particularly Secretary of State Antony Blinken, constantly claiming to uphold a so-called “rules-based international order”, while accusing US adversaries like China of supposedly violating it.

The ICC has arrested and prosecuted numerous African, Arab and Muslim leaders over the years but their warrants against the Israelis marks the first time the court has targeted a country allied with the West.

“During the first 20 years of its operation, the court sought to prosecute people solely from the African continent,” said Scheffer. “As a result, it was criticised for having an “Africa problem” and channelling the “assertion of neocolonial domination,” he added.

Indeed, the credibility of the ICC has come repeatedly under question with accusations of it being in the pocket of the powerful West following its failures to take action against the atrocities of Western armies in relation to Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Israel has labelled the ICC charges as “anti-semitic”, a charge regularly used against its critics but dismissed by legal scholars.

Abdelghany Sayed, a researcher in international law at Kent Law School, also dismissed Israel’s claims of complementarity which would see the Jewish state investigating its own crimes.

“Complementarity in no way means that the elected officials and independent judiciary of a democratic state shall enjoy immunity from ICC prosecution. Instead, it means that Israel needs to show it has active investigations,” said Sayed.

“The fact of Israel’s inactivity in relation to war crimes and crimes against humanity by Netanyahu and Gallant in and of itself already means that the complementarity assessment has been exhausted and the court may proceed,” he added.

Critics of the ICC said determination in pursuing the warrants against a Western ally were a chance for the court to redeem its credibility. 

However, there are already signs that several signatories to the Rome Statue, and allies of Israel, are looking for ways to avoid carrying out the arrests should the two wanted Israelis visit their countries.

Already several European founding members of the ICC  have publicly said they might not do so. While Britain and Germany have not stated specifically what action they would take, France and Italy have said Netanyahu might be immune from arrest. 

“Even the Netherlands, which hosts the court in The Hague, has said there could be circumstances in which Netanyahu might be able to visit, without spelling out what those conditions might be,” reported Reuters.

The latest salvos against the ICC follow pressure and threats the organisation has been under for years, specifically by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.

Former Mossad head, Yossi Cohen, allegedly threatened former ICC chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, in the years leading up to her 2021 decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

Cohen, a close ally, of Netanyahu personally led the Mossad’s involvement in the almost decade-long campaign by Israel to undermine the court, The Guardian reported.

A small group of senior ICC officials were informed of the increasingly persistent and threatening nature of Cohen’s actions. This included phone tapping, thuggish behaviour and death threats against Bensouda’s family.

Israel has also lashed out at Amnesty International’s latest report which accuses Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza. 

In response Israel called Amnesty International a “deplorable and fanatical organisation” with pro-Israel watchdog NGO Monitor accusing it “of pursuing an antisemitic agenda seeking Israel’s annihilation”.

Israel has also upped the ante in its campaign against the UN Relief and Work’s agency (UNRWA) after labelling the group a “terrorist organisation” following largely unsubstantiated claims that some of its employees were involved in Hamas’ October attack against southern Israel.

In a press release the UN aid organisation said Israel was continuing its disinformation campaign against it.

“Using commercial advertisement including billboards in several cities around the world and paid Google ads on multiple websites, Israel has stepped up its disinformation campaign against UNRWA,” said the aid group, adding that this was part of a wider campaign of disinformation against it.  

Since the war began, 251 UNRWA team members have been killed in the war in Gaza. Two thirds of the UNRWA buildings in Gaza have been hit, many directly or several times, according to UNRWA. 

Meanwhile, Leaked documents show the extent of collaboration between the pro-Israel legal advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) and the Israeli Government, in their attempt to “counter” the work of human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which they say is damaging to the Jewish state. 

To counter this, Steven Kay QC and Joshua Kern from London’s 9 Bedford Row International (9BRI) were offering to work with UKLFI. 

“This proposal, as well as emails from UKLFI to officials within the Israeli Ministry of Justice, are part of a trove of documents leaked in a hack by a group that calls itself Anonymous for Justice following a dataset published by the non-profit journalist collective Distributed Denial of Secrets,” reported online media outlet Mondoweiss. 

Despite UKLFI denials numerous emails between UKLFI, 9BRI and the Israeli Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs show how they worked together to submit briefs before the International Court of Justic (ICJ) in a bid to thwart South Africa’s genocide case against Israel. 

At least one pro-Palestinian law expert has labelled this action as an attempt to “muddy the waters”.