Canada Should Have Rejected ICC’s Warrants For Israeli Leaders

In one of the 21st century’s gravest perversions of justice, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. This unprecedented move marks the ICC’s first issuance of such warrants against the leaders of a democratic nation.

The decision is shameful, morally outrageous, legally flawed, factually absurd, and dangerous to the cause of justice and peace in international affairs.

The government of Canada should have unequivocally rejected it.

The ICC is spearheading an international campaign to demonize, de-legitimize, and apply double standards to the world’s only Jewish state – a country defending itself against unprecedented assaults.

By issuing these warrants, the ICC has targeted a country that was brutally attacked on October 7, 2023 – a nation that suffered the destruction of families, the rape of women, the execution of children, and the abduction of civilians still held hostage by Hamas, a designated terrorist entity under Canadian law. Israel faces an Iran-backed assault on seven military fronts – now compounded by a legal assault.

The ICC has disregarded its lack of jurisdiction over Israeli nationals under its own statute, international law principles, and the Oslo Accords.

On behalf of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), we submitted amicus curia observations to the ICC focused on the complementarity principle, a core tenet of the ICC. This principle requires the Court to intervene only when a state is unwilling or unable to carry out genuine investigations or prosecutions.

As a democracy, Israel has a robust and independent judiciary, which – had the ICC adhered to international law – would have precluded ICC intervention.

Indeed, during recent debates over judicial reforms in Israel, Canada criticized efforts to weaken Israel’s judiciary. To remain consistent, the Canadian government should affirm that Israel possesses the legal institutions necessary to handle these matters. It should declare that the ICC has no jurisdiction, and it should reject this decision.

The ICC failed to assess whether prosecuting Israeli leaders aligned with the interests of justice. Even more tragic, the ICC’s simultaneous pursuit of warrants against Hamas leaders and Israeli officials undermined negotiations for the release of hostages in Gaza, men and women of various nationalities whose survival grows more uncertain with each passing day.

The ICC’s decision, made as Israel defends itself against a Hamas-instigated war, will embolden terrorist groups and authoritarian regimes around the world. In the global battle between liberal democracies and illiberal forces, this decision weakens the democratic camp to which Canada claims to belong.

This shameful act causes irreparable damage to the court’s credibility. If Canada truly supports the ICC, it must defend the court’s integrity by opposing its overreach when it threatens justice and peace.

Whether one supports Netanyahu is irrelevant. This is a political attack on the leaders of a democratic ally, valiantly fighting for its very survival against a tidal wave of radical Islamist violence.

Canada should have unequivocally declared that this ICC decision is both unwise and invalid and asserted that it will neither endorse nor enforce the warrants.

To accept these warrants is to become complicit in the perversion of what should have been a valuable instrument of justice.