In a petition addressed to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Tekavive criticizes prosecutor Karim Khan for not giving Israel the opportunity to investigate its allegations before seeking arrest warrants against its leaders, a fundamental principle of the ICC’s founding charter.
The submission to the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I, which is considering Khan’s request for arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, also argues that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Israeli citizens. , advances the Teams Israel.
In the process, made public on Monday by Israel but presented last month, Israel’s legal representative, Gilad Noam, insists that, under Article 18 of the ICC’s Rome Statute, which governs the court’s actions, and in line with previous court rulings, the prosecutor must provide “sufficiently specific” information to the state under investigation about the crimes it is investigating, in order to give that country the possibility of informing the court that it is willing to carry out itself these investigations and to initiate proceedings when necessary.
Despite this requirement, Khan relied on a notification sent to Israel about alleged crimes that the ICC was investigating in March 2021, even before Khan took office, based on a reference dating back to 2018, Israel’s presentation points out.
Noam also details Israel’s explicit request to the court on May 1 of this year, before Khan requested arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant on May 20, to obtain information about the alleged crimes he was investigating, in order to that Israel’s legal authorities could investigate them, according to the court’s charter, which can only investigate and prosecute crimes when a state is unable or unwilling to do so.
This information was never given by the prosecutor, adds Noam.
“Despite having been forced into a bloody conflict that it did not want, Israel remains a democracy with an independent judicial system and deeply committed to the rule of law, including the principles of international humanitarian law,” he writes in the document.
“The undeniable fact is that Israel, despite having made requests to the Prosecutor’s Office, has never received notification of the scope of the Prosecutor’s intended or actual investigation into the events since October 7, 2023,” adds Noam.
Israel’s legal representative requests that the Pre-Trial Chamber suspend any proceedings against Israel until sufficient notification is issued.
