The diplomatic reprisals against Norway, announced by Israel on August 8, are the latest in a series of moves to prevent the International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. On the same day, Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, justified the decision to revoke the diplomatic status of Norwegian staff working with the Palestinian Authority by criticizing Norway for recognizing Palestine at the end of May, and for joining the "baseless case against [Israel] before the ICC." On May 20, the Court's prosecutor, Karim Khan, had requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Three weeks later, in an unusual move, the United Kingdom applied to intervene as amicus curiae ("friend of the court") to provide the judges with expert advice. London argued that the Oslo Accords – signed in 1993 at the White House by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization – did not allow Palestinians to ask the Court to investigate crimes committed by Israelis, as they had done in 2018. This request had led to the opening of an investigation in March 2021, then, this year, to arrest warrants – which have still not been issued.

The judges then allowed the British to submit a 10-page brief, before the new Labour government of former barrister and director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer finally renounced it. If this was a maneuver to gain time, it was successful: By accepting London's request, the ICC judges allowed others to intervene. They received over 60 responses, from professors of international law, lawyers, NGOs, think tanks, a US senator, former NATO generals, UN experts and some 20 states. These include Norway, which claims to have played a mediating role in the negotiations leading up to the Oslo Accords, but is now facing diplomatic reprisals from Israel.

The British initiative, which was discussed by the G7 in mid-June, is a further attempt to prevent the issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli officials. The Israeli prime minister himself has been active in the campaign. In early July, during a telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, Netanyahu asked Paris to become a "friend of the court." France abstained, not because it disagreed, but because "it could have led certain states to recognize Palestine in order to circumvent the Oslo obstacle, and would therefore be risky," a diplomatic source told Le Monde. At any rate, Paris welcomed the slowdown in the procedure. At the beginning of June, Macron had given assurances that the warrants would not be issued for a long time.

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