ICC Appeals Chamber rules lower court must hear Israel’s challenge to jurisdiction

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) rules to return Israel’s challenge on the court’s jurisdiction over the country to the lower chamber, saying it failed to sufficiently address Israel’s arguments that it is entitled to challenge the court’s jurisdiction.

Israel filed challenges to the jurisdiction of the ICC over its nationals last year, after prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant in May.

But the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I ruled against Israel, saying it was too early to consider such arguments.

The Appeals Chamber rules that the Pre-Trial Chamber had an obligation to consider Israel’s challenge to the jurisdiction, and that the chamber’s reasoning that it was too early was poorly constructed.

The Appeals Chamber says, however, that it is not ruling on Israel’s request that the arrest warrants be suspended while the jurisdiction issue is worked out, arguing the issue was not directly connected to the matter of jurisdiction, and saying that was for the Pre-Trial Chamber to determine.

Israel has argued in its filings to the ICC that the entity known as the “State of Palestine,” which became a member of the court in 2015, never had the right to refer jurisdiction over Israeli nationals to the ICC since the Oslo Accords explicitly deny the Palestinian Authority jurisdiction over Israeli citizens.