The International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected last Friday night, October 17, Israel’s request for an appeal against a previous decision that confirmed the arrest warrants issued against the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahuand the former Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant.
In a decision that made the front page in the international press, the ICC considered, in November last year, that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant had “criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the conflict in Gaza.
These arrest warrants provoked outrage in Israel and the United States, which have since imposed sanctions on senior ICC officials.
Benjamin Netanyahu described this decision as “anti-Semitic” and the American President Joe Biden considered it “scandalous”.
In May, Israel had asked the ICC to reject these warrantswhile he analyzed another appeal that aims to determine whether he is competent in this case.
The Court rejected this request on July 16considering that there was “no legal basis” to annul the arrest warrants until the issue of jurisdiction had been resolved.
A week later, Israel asked for permission to appeal this decision, but the judges ruled once again that “the question, as formulated by Israel, is not subject to appeal.”.
“The Chamber therefore rejects the request”, declared the CPI in a complex thirteen-page decision.