Frustrated by Biden and Harris’ refusal to act against the ICC, Israel is filing a formal objection to Netanyahu’s planned arrest.

Officials in Jerusalem, frustrated by Washington’s refusal to take action against the International Criminal Court, have made public their objection to the ICC’s likely imminent global arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

“It is disappointing that sanctions against the ICC clowns and their supporters have still not passed the Senate,” Ophir Falk, a close aide to Mr Netanyahu, told The Sun in an email, referring to a congressional measure to sanction ICC officials, a move opposed by the Biden administration and Democrats in the upper house.

The House Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act has been shelved in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Senator Ben Cardin, calling for financial and other sanctions against ICC officials. As president, Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on ICC officials, including by denying former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda entry to America.

Last week, current prosecutor Karim Khan asked ICC judges to grant his May request to issue international arrest warrants for the Israeli officials, citing alleged ongoing crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including allegedly imposing a famine in the Gaza Strip.

Israel, like America, is not a member of the ICC, a fact that Washington officials cited in public statements criticizing the ICC’s intention to issue arrest warrants. With President Biden and Vice President Harris reluctant to take or seek more concrete action against the court, Israel is now trying to officially oppose it.

We raise an “official objection to the jurisdiction of the ICC and to the legality” of the prosecutor’s request for arrest, Jerusalem Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said in a statement on Friday. Israel has initiated two separate legal proceedings to challenge the jurisdiction of the Hague court, he added.

In one case, according to Marmorstein, Israel found that the ICC “has no authority whatsoever with respect to the case in question.” In a second case, Israel found that the Prosecutor had “flagrantly violated the Court’s Constitution and the principle of complementarity.”

The International Criminal Court was established in 1998 by the Rome Statute, which has been ratified by 124 countries. It was created to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by individuals in its member countries or on any of its member territories. Israel has not ratified the statute, which gives the ICC jurisdiction only over member countries.

The Hague nevertheless argues that the alleged “crimes” are being committed by Israelis in territories belonging to one of its newest members, the Palestinian Authority. Specifically, the court points to events in the Gaza Strip, which is not controlled by the Authority but by Hamas.

Complementarity, the ministry said, is a long-standing principle of international law enshrined in the Rome Statute, which stipulates that international courts only hear cases in which a country does not have a competent and independent legal system. The ICC violated this principle “by not giving Israel the necessary opportunity to exercise its right to investigate the allegations it raised itself before initiating its measures.”

Israel has not joined for fear that its officials would be the first to be tried in The Hague. America is not a member either, nor are communist China, Russia, India and other large countries.

Nevertheless, the ICC issued an international arrest warrant for President Putin for crimes committed in Ukraine. Although Kyiv has not ratified the Rome Statute, it accepted the court’s jurisdiction over its territory, as did America, which is helping the ICC gather evidence against Russian officials.

Since its creation, the ICC has been accused of dealing mainly with cases against alleged criminals from Africa. South Africa and other countries on the continent have threatened to leave the court, demanding that The Hague proceed in other regions. Israel seemed a natural target, and Ms Bensouda opened several investigations into Palestinian allegations.

While Ms Bensouda’s cases never came to fruition, Khan, a British citizen, used the Gaza war to finally demand the arrest of the Israeli prime minister and foreign minister. Britain, an ICC member, considered petitioning the court against the issuing of the arrest warrants, but dropped the idea when the Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer won an election.

“Several leading countries, including member states of the Court, organizations and legal experts from around the world share the positions taken by Israel on these issues,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Marmorstein. “No other democracy with an independent and respected judicial system such as the State of Israel has experienced such discriminatory treatment by the prosecutor.”