International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan was preparing to request arrest warrants for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir before going on leave earlier this month over a sexual misconduct probe, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
According to the US newspaper, which cited current and former ICC officials, Khan was building a case against the two far-right ministers over their roles in promoting Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Other unidentified Israeli officials besides Ben Gvir and Smotrich were also reportedly being investigated by the ICC for working to expand settlements.
Both ministers lead far-right parties and strongly back the West Bank settlement movement. Smotrich has called for ramping up settlement construction in response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that started the Gaza war, and for the annexation of the West Bank.
It is unclear whether Khan’s deputies will move forward with the case against the two, with the report noting such a move could bring further US sanctions and would entail deep political risks at a time when the court has no top prosecutor in place. The Trump administration slapped sanctions on the court and Khan over the arrest warrants issued last year for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Those sanctions have reportedly impacted the court’s ability to function.
The cited officials said that war crimes allegations were being considered against Smotrich and Ben Gvir.
According to the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, the transfer by an occupying power of its population into occupied territory is a war crime. The Geneva Conventions also prohibit such action.
Israel’s stance is that the West Bank, which it gained control of in the 1967 Six Day War, was not legally a part of another state at the time, and that its continued control of the area is therefore not an occupation.
The United Nations’ International Court of Justice, which is distinct from the non-UN ICC, also sees Israeli settlements as illegal.
The court did not comment to the newspaper regarding Smotrich and Ben Gvir, saying only that it has a mandate to investigate alleged crimes in the Palestinian territories committed since 2014, when the Palestinian Authority joined the ICC. Israel is not a member of the ICC.
In 2021, the court ruled that it has jurisdiction over alleged crimes in the West Bank, even though Israel is not a member.
Neither Smotrich nor Ben Gvir responded to a WSJ request for comment.
However, in a statement to Hebrew media, Ben Gvir said, “I have one message for the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court: No arrest warrant of any kind will deter me from continuing to act for Israel and the Land of Israel.”
The prosecutor, he said, “doesn’t scare me, doesn’t deter me. If The Hague is against me, I know that I am on the right path.”
Unnamed Israeli officials told the Kan public broadcaster that after Khan went on leave, and in light of the “concerning facts being revealed about his behavior, it is expected that his deputies will act with caution and responsibility in dealing with the case.”
Khan went on leave as the probe into his alleged sexual misconduct nears its end, his office said earlier this month.
Earlier this month, a Wall Street Journal report questioned whether the allegations of sexual assault were what prompted Khan to issue the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. According to the report, at the time, some ICC officials were pushing for a case first against West Bank settlements.
The current and former officials explained that the viewpoint was that pursuing a case against settlements would be less controversial than one related to Israel’s handling of the war against Hamas, as Western governments had backed Israel’s right to fight the terror group following the October 7, 2023, attack.
The ICC issued the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on November 24, 2024. The Prime Minister’s Office panned the move in a statement as an “antisemitic decision” and asserted that it stemmed from Khan’s efforts to “save his skin from the serious charges against him for sexual harassment” as well as the beliefs of “biased judges motivated by antisemitic hatred of Israel.”
ICC warrants were also issued for three Hamas leaders, all of whom have since been killed by Israel.
Three weeks ago, Israel asked the ICC to withdraw the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, who was fired as defense minister last November.