AG tells Netanyahu that state commission into war is best way to counter Hague efforts

Israel’s attorney general has urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to establish a state commission of inquiry into the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, in order to counter the legal steps being taken against Israel abroad.

In a letter from Gali Baharav-Miara sent to Netanyahu earlier today and published on the Walla news site, the attorney general says that such a move is the best defense against both the ongoing trial against Israel at the International Court of Justice and the arrest warrants sought by the top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

“Given the urgency of dealing with the threats on the international stage, our professional opinion is that there should be no delay in establishing a state commission of inquiry in investigating the events of the war,” Baharav-Miara writes in the letter.

Netanyahu has resisted calls from within his coalition and the opposition to establish such a commission.

Such a commission, usually headed by retired Supreme Court justices, would almost certainly head off procedures in the ICC, since the court is prohibited in principle by the Rome Statute which founded it from holding proceedings against the nationals of a country, which is itself holding credible investigations into the allegations in question.