Arrest warrant applications against extremist Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich on apartheid charges are complete, but remain unsubmitted at the International Criminal Court (ICC), amid fears of US sanctions and external pressures, a report has shown.
The applications are finalized and currently rest in the hands of two ICC deputy prosecutors, the Middle East Eye (MEE) news and analysis website reported on Friday.
If the warrants are issued, they would mark the initiation of the first international prosecution of apartheid.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan had prepared the cases before going on leave in May 2025.
An ICC source told MEE, "Those applications for the arrest warrants are completely done. The only thing that didn't happen was submitting them to the court."
Deputy Prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang have the authority to submit the applications, but sources fear they may be shelved due to unprecedented external pressure, including American sanctions.
In February, the administration of President Donald Trump sanctioned Khan, and in June, it sanctioned four ICC judges, two of whom had approved arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister for military affairs, Yoav Gallant.
Those warrants came in response to the duo’s war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Netanyahu-ordered war of genocide on the Gaza Strip, which began in October 2023 and continues to date.
Khan went on leave amid an alleged United Nations investigation into “sexual misconduct” allegations, which he has denied.
Despite this, Khan had filed applications on 20 May 2024, leading to arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024.
ICC sources told MEE that Khan’s legal team continued investigating Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity in the occupied West Bank, where Ben Gvir and Smotrich have been leading a ferocious campaign aimed at enabling more land seizures and home destructions aimed at expanding Israeli occupation.
“There was no more work to do on the applications. They're not being drafted. They weren't being revised. They were done. All that was left to do was follow court procedures for submitting an application. But Karim didn't have time to do that because everything moved so quickly. And then he stepped aside," an ICC source said.
Raji Sourani, a lawyer representing Palestine at the ICC and the International Court of Justice, criticized the deputy prosecutors. "For us, they are very late. What are they waiting for? They have everything. Justice delayed is justice denied."
Another ICC source warned, "If the Ben Gvir and Smotrich applications just disappear, the opportunity to prosecute one of the most blatant examples of apartheid in the world today will likely be lost forever."
Under the Rome Statute that helped found the ICC, apartheid is a crime against humanity, defined as "inhumane acts… committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime."
The Israeli regime has already been denounced for implementing apartheid against Palestinians by numerous leading human rights bodies. Even the regime’s own rights bodies, including B'Tselem, have condemned the practice.
In July 2024, the ICJ ruled the regime’s occupation of the West Bank illegal, noting that its "near-complete separation" of Palestinians from illegal Israeli settlers, including through illegal settlement expansion, breached international law.
On June 10, 2024, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway sanctioned Smotrich and Ben Gvir for "their repeated incitement of violence against Palestinian communities."
MEE reports also reveal external attempts to influence Khan.
ICC lawyer Nicholas Kaufman offered Khan a proposal from Netanyahu’s legal team to reclassify existing warrants as confidential. Kaufman warned, "They will destroy you and they will destroy the court."
Khan stepped down on a suspicious indefinite leave weeks later following “sexual assault” allegations. Separately, former British Foreign Secretary David Cameron reportedly threatened to withdraw UK funding if the ICC issued warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. US Senator Lindsey Graham and US State Department legal adviser Reed Rubinstein also issued threats of sanctions against the ICC.
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