On May 20, 2024, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan announced that he was seeking arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, alongside three Hamas leaders.

This move is not unexpected.  For well over a decade, Palestinian, Israeli, and international NGOs have pushed the ICC to investigate, indict, and arrest Israeli officials.  This includes NGOs linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, groups that deny Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and BDS supporters.

The tactic of “lawfare” was adopted at the NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban Conference as part of a broader “Durban Strategy” that seeks “a policy of complete and total isolation of Israel as an apartheid state.” The Final Declaration at the NGO Forum called for “the establishment of a war crimes tribunal” and other legal measures against Israel.

Since then, the NGO campaign has included meetings with the ICC Prosecutor and the submission of materials to the ICC, as well as extensive lobbying of governments and other international bodies to pressure the Prosecutor.

Two significant milestones preceded Khan’s announcement.  In January 2015, the ICC allowed the “State of Palestine” to join the Court and extend its jurisdiction to alleged crimes in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.  As Israel is not a member of the Rome Statute that formed the ICC, the Court has no jurisdiction over Israel. Therefore, Palestinian ascension was crucial to ICC steps against Israelis.  

Second, in March 2021, then ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, announced an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the “State of Palestine.” 

This campaign has been funded by the EU and a host of European governments, even as NGOs publicized their efforts to generate investigations of Israeli officials.  The European Union, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and other European governments have provided tens of millions of dollars to anti-Israel ICC campaigns and lobbying. In some instances, the European funding was explicitly earmarked for NGO activities vis-à-vis the ICC, while other European grants have made reference to “international justice” and other coded phrases.