The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court has reversed an earlier ruling by its lower court against Israel’s jurisdictional objections to the issuing of arrest warrants for alleged war crimes against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant.
According to the ICC Appeals Court, “Israel’s challenge to the jurisdiction of the Court pursuant to article 19(2) of the Statute should not have been dismissed as premature. ”
The decision, a win for Israel, sends the jurisdictional fight back to the ICC lower court to more fully explore Israel’s jurisdictional objections to the arrest warrants.
While the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant have not been frozen, but there is now the prospect the ICC lower court could decide to cancel them after hearing Israel’s full jurisdictional objections.
Many countries who are members of the ICC may choose to ignore the arrest warrants until a final ruling is reached.
In November 2024 the ICC’s lower court said that the arrests could go forward even if there was no final determination on Israel’s jurisdictional objections as these objections could be dealt with at the indictment stage or some other later stage.
On the merits of the appeal by Israel the Appeals Chamber concluded that the Pre-Trial Chamber committed an error of law by failing to sufficiently address the argument that it was entitled to make a jurisdictional challenge under article 19(2)(c) of the Statute.
As a result, the Appeals Chamber dismissed, as moot, Israel’s request for suspensive effect of two arrest warrants issued after the Impugned Decision and “any other legal acts taken by the Court based thereon”.
In addition, the ICC Appeals Court Chamber, by a majority vote, dismissed Israel’s second grounds for appeal against the ICC lower court, rejecting Israel’s request for an order to the Prosecutor to issue a new notice pursuant to article 18(1) of the Statute.
