ICC
The Hague: The International Criminal Court (ICC)’s Appeals Chamber has reset the course of its Palestine investigation, overturning a 2024 ruling that dismissed Israel’s challenge to the court’s authority and sparking debate over how non-party states like Israel can engage with the ICC. On April 24, 2025, the chamber sent Israel’s jurisdictional argument back for review, while dismissing a related appeal, highlighting tensions over procedural fairness that could shape the court’s credibility in handling politically charged cases.
Israel, not an ICC member, argued under article 19(2)(c) of the Rome Statute that the court lacks authority because sovereignty over the West Bank and Gaza Strip is unresolved, citing the Oslo Accords’ limits on Palestine’s ability to delegate criminal jurisdiction. On November 21, 2024, Pre-Trial Chamber I rejected this challenge as premature, ruling that only individuals could contest authority after arrest warrants were issued. The Appeals Chamber, on April 24, 2025, unanimously found this interpretation legally flawed, as it restricted Israel’s right to challenge the court’s authority at this stage. The case was sent back to the Pre-Trial Chamber to assess Israel’s argument.
On November 21, 2024, the Pre-Trial Chamber also issued two arrest warrants against Israeli nationals. Israel sought to pause these, but the Appeals Chamber dismissed this request on April 24, 2025, as irrelevant after the jurisdictional reversal.
Separately, on October 3, 2024, the Pre-Trial Chamber denied Israel’s request under article 18(1) for the ICC Prosecutor to issue a new notice, which could allow Israel to seek a delay in the investigation. Israel argued the Prosecutor’s 2021 notification was inadequate, but the Pre-Trial Chamber disagreed. Israel appealed, but on April 24, 2025, a majority of the Appeals Chamber, led by Presiding Judge Tomoko Akane, dismissed the appeal as inadmissible, stating the decision did not address case admissibility.
Judges Luz Del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza and Solomy Balungi Bossa dissented on April 24, 2025, arguing the October 3, 2024, decision was a preliminary ruling on admissibility, making the appeal valid under articles 18(4) and 82(1)(a). Judge Ibáñez Carranza stressed that ignoring Israel’s non-party status under international law—particularly the principle that treaties require consent to bind non-parties—undermined fairness and could harm victims’ interests by delaying justice. Judge Bossa argued the ruling engaged with complementarity, a principle prioritising states’ own investigations, which inherently involves admissibility and warrants an appeal to protect early challenges to the court’s authority.
The ICC’s investigation, launched in 2021 after Palestine accepted the court’s authority, probes possible war crimes in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip since June 13, 2014. A February 5, 2021, Pre-Trial Chamber ruling affirmed Palestine’s statehood, despite Israel’s objections.
– global bihari bureau
