The Mossad and the Prosecutor’s Office of the ICC
Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen is said to have had covert contacts with the then chief prosecutor of the ICC, Fatou Bensouda, in a series of secret meetings. These meetings were reportedly aimed at pressuring the prosecutor’s office to abandon the investigation of war crimes by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories. The pressures were aimed at preventing a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Reactions and Detention Requests
Sources within the ICC have indicated that Bensouda revealed that Cohen had pressured him on several occasions not to proceed with an ICC criminal investigation in the Palestine case. These revelations have sparked backlash, as the ICC’s current chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, recently sought arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the first Israeli minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
Answers from the Israeli Authorities
After the arrest request, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant expressed that his country does not recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court and defended the action of the Israeli Army, stating that they comply with international law. In addition, Netanyahu questioned the comparison made by the ICC between the leaders of Hamas and the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, stating that the IDF is ‘the most moral army in the world’.
