The US is set to weigh in on the International Criminal Court’s intention to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with Hamas and Israeli officials over the war in Gaza, according to court documents.
The court documents come after Middle East Eye revealed earlier this month that the Biden administration was mulling submitting an amicus curiae to the ICC, voicing its staunch opposition to the decision of the court’s chief prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for the Israeli officials.
On Monday, the ICC released court filings that showed the US government has joined more than 60 states, organisations and individuals asking to file a brief on the case.
The Biden administration joins an eclectic group that includes the Kingdom of Norway, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, US Senator Lindsey Graham, and a French lawyer who claimed he was submitting a brief on behalf of Hamas.
The ICC allows an amicus curiae to be filed by a state, NGO or an individual. It’s unclear whether the briefs will sway the ICC, but the sheer number of briefs is likely to delay the ICC’s decision on whether or not to issue arrest warrants for weeks.
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The court has ruled that observations on the case should not be longer than 10 pages and must be filed by 6 August.
The US’s move to weigh in is notable because it had previously lobbied the UK to challenge the court as well. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken personally asked his UK counterpart, David Lammy, to continue challenging the court’s jurisdiction over Israeli citizens at a Nato summit in July, MEE reported.
Unlike the UK, the US is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC in 2002.
The unprecedented interest in the ICC deliberations reflects how the court’s decision could reverberate across the globe.
For advocates of Palestine, chief ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s defence minister alongside Hamas officials in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, was a watershed moment for international law.
Israel has slammed the move and the US made no secret of its objection to the prosecutor’s decision, saying it created a false sense of equivalency between Hamas – which the US deems a terror organisation – and its closest Middle East ally, Israel.
Israel, which asked the UK to start its legal challenge against the ICC, a US official told MEE, did not petition to file its own brief, but the Palestinian Authority did.
Separately, ICJ issued an advisory opinion on Friday that declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of the West Bank unlawful and in breach of laws against apartheid.
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