politics and the law often meet on unfriendly terms;

It was a landmark ruling by the world’s supreme judicial body.

Israel’s 57-year occupation and colonial settlement of the Palestinian territories are unlawful, it must withdraw from the territories “as rapidly as possible,” and UN member states must hold Israel to account for its wrongful acts, the International Court of Justice declared last July 19, in The Hague, in a non-binding 12-3 vote. 

Sometime this fall, across town, a 3-judge panel of a totally different court – the International Criminal Court (independent from the UN) – will issue one of two far more consequential rulings.

In response to Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s May 20 application for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders (Yahiya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, who Israel killed in an assassination in Iran on July 31, and Mohammed Deif, who Israel claims to have killed but which Hamas denies), ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I (PTC) may approve Khan’s application, in which case arrest warrants would likely be issued shortly thereafter.

Alternatively, the PTC may tell Khan that Israel should have an opportunity to prove its own legal system is capable of holding Israelis responsible for the war crimes and crimes against humanity they’ve allegedly committed, a process that could drag on for months. 

The first of these two scenarios was what ICC watchers had anticipated, in the weeks following Khan’s arrest warrant application.

Then, the process went sideways............more.........