ICC prosecutor says UK threatened to defund court over Netanyahu arrest warrant

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has alleged that an official from the previous UK government threatened to defund the ICC and leave the Rome Statute if the court pressed ahead with arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Karim Khan, who has been placed on leave pending an investigation into sexual abuse allegations that he denies, made the allegation in a submission to the ICC defending his decision to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, The Guardian reported Thursday.

He did not identify the British official who issued the threats, but said they came during an April 2024 phone call.

The Guardian speculated that reports suggested the UK official was then-foreign secretary David Cameron, a former British prime minister.

According to the report, Khan said the British official argued during the call that issuing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant would be disproportionate, and warned that London could respond by withdrawing funding from the court and exiting the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC.

In his submission, Khan also alleged pressure from Washington. He said a US official cautioned him in April 2024 that there would be what The Guardian called “disastrous consequences” if the warrants were issued.

Despite calls to delay, Khan said he pushed back, telling the official there was no indication Israel was prepared to cooperate with the court or alter its conduct.

Khan further claimed that during a subsequent call on May 1, 2024,  US Senator Lindsey Graham warned him that pursuing arrest warrants would mean “Hamas may as well shoot Israeli hostages.”

Addressing the sexual misconduct allegations, Khan said he first became aware of them on May 2. Four days later, he said, an unidentified third party told him that a complaint about his behavior had been filed with the ICC’s internal oversight mechanism without the alleged victim’s consent.

Khan said the woman later indicated she did not wish to pursue an investigation, and the matter was dropped, until an anonymous account on X revived the allegations in October.

A second woman came forward in August to make similar allegations.

In his submission, Khan portrayed himself as having acted neutrally and professionally throughout the process, emphasizing that his decision to seek arrest warrants predated the allegations and was not influenced by personal considerations. He allegedly said it would be wrong to rely on “conjecture from select media reports” to argue that there were grounds for his disqualification, and stressed that his work on the case was carried out meticulously.

The Guardian reported that Khan personally pushed for a detailed 22-page rebuttal to Israel’s request to throw out the warrants, after reviewing an earlier draft he considered insufficiently strong. He also said he brought together a group of international law specialists to weigh whether the court had jurisdiction and whether proceedings should be initiated against Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas officials, who have since been killed by Israel.

Israel last month filed an appeal to the ICC, asking it to bar Khan from any involvement in ongoing cases against Israeli officials.

On November 24, 2024, the ICC issued warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on suspicion of ordering war crimes during Israel’s campaign against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, following the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel.

Jerusalem denies the allegations, asserting that the war, with the declared aims of returning the hostages, defeating Hamas, and preventing a future threat from Gaza, has been fought in accordance with international law.