The ICC Prosecutor's applications for arrest warrants regarding the Situation in Palestine represent a milestone. But they are of little credit to Prosecutor Karim Khan.
It is abundantly clear that Khan has been sitting on this file for years, hoping it would simply disappear. Two matters forced his hand.
First, his 2023 indictments of senior Russian officials despite a previous pledge that he would only pursue cases referred to his office by the United Nations Security Council and ignore the rest – particularly the investigations concerning Afghanistan and Palestine that were opposed by the US and UK.
Having gone back on his commitment, the hypocrisy associated with continuing to ignore the Palestine investigation initiated in 2021 became simply too overwhelming, particular as Israel's genocidal onslaught against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip intensified in 2024.
Second, the global outcry against his inertia became too loud to ignore. Much as Khan would have preferred to pursue the policy preferences of the US, UK, and Israel, the main sponsors of his campaign for ICC prosecutor, his inaction became untenable.
According to Khan. his office been investigating the Situation in Palestine since early 2021, and is examining all violations of the Rome Statute as since 2014. Yet in his case too, history appears to have commenced on 7 October 2023.
His applications wholly ignore, any and all, issues unconnected with the current situation in the Gaza Strip. Nothing about the crime against humanity that is apartheid, nothing about the war crime of illegal settlement, nothing about Israel's previous onslaughts against the Gaza Strip, or its systematic sniper attacks against demonstrators during the 2018 Great March of Return....