The ICC May Have to go Through the United States to Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu

When the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, it may have unwittingly dragged the United States into the scuffle. Under the terms of the Rome Statue, the ICC’s founding treaty, signatories are bound to arrest and extradite anyone targeted by the ICC.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin was served with an ICC arrest warrant in March 2023 (see International Criminal Court Issues Arrest Warrant for Vladimir Putin and Putin’s War, Week 56. Putin Indicted for War Crimes, Xi Visits Moscow, and Sevastopol Attacked for a Third Time), that effectively ended his travel outside minor client states, Vietnam, North Korea, and Communist China.

He canceled his appearance at a BRICS meeting in South Africa in July 2023 because of that nation’s obligation to arrest him; see Vladimir Putin Cancels Trip to BRICS Summit Because of ICC Arrest Warrant. When he was invited to the coronation investiture inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum, who is president of that part of Mexico the narco cartels let her pretend that she runs, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador made a big deal about sticking his finger in the eye of the evil yanquis and invited Putin, assuring him he saw under no risk of arrest; see Mexico Refuses to Poke the Bear, Denies Ukraine’s Request to Arrest Vladimir Putin. Putin thought better of the invitation and backed out.

Where Netanyahu’s situation differs is that the United States has a law requiring the US government “to use all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any person described in subsection (b) who is being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court.” That law, passed in 2002, is called the American Service-Members’ Protection Act. This law was passed in direct response to potential politically driven ICC indictments of US servicemembers serving in Afghanistan. The law was jokingly referred to as The Hague Invasion Act.

How does this help Netanyahu? The “person described in subsection (b)” also includes our formal and informal allies. 

1. COVERED ALLIED PERSONS- The term `covered allied persons’ means military personnel, elected or appointed officials, and other persons employed by or working on behalf of the government of a NATO member country, a major non-NATO ally (including Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Argentina, the Republic of Korea, and New Zealand), or Taiwan, for so long as that government is not a party to the International Criminal Court and wishes its officials and other persons working on its behalf to be exempted from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Any nation attempting to detain Netanyahu would be in direct confrontation with the US. That might not have been a big deal under Biden, but it will be a big deal under Trump. The loss of trade and diplomatic ties, as well as economic sanctions, will probably make the most hardened virtue-signalling pro-Hamas Karen think twice before trying to arrest Netanyahu or Gallant.