Many of Israel's allies worldwide lambasted The Hague over its ruling last week, asserting it has jurisdiction to launch an investigation against Israel for alleged war crimes.
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The United States was the first to censure the ICC. The State Department said in a statement that the US "objects to the International Criminal Court decision regarding the Palestinian situation. Israel is not a State Party to the Rome Statute. We will continue to uphold [US] President [Joe] Biden's strong commitment to Israel and its security, including opposing actions that seek to target Israel unfairly."
Canada, Germany and Australia also issued statements slamming the decision
The Canadian Foreign Ministry stated that "Palestine is not a state and therefore international conventions do not apply to it, including the Rome Treaty, on which the [ICC] Tribunal was founded."
The Australian Foreign Ministry expressed "deep reservations over the ICC's ruling. We have made this clear to the pretrial chamber. The International Criminal Court should not exercise jurisdiction in this matter."
A German government spokesperson said Monday that "alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories in Israel is not [an issue] that falls under International Criminal Court's jurisdiction."
The Axios news website reported Monday that the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem sent a classified cable to dozens of Israeli ambassadors around the world, instructing them to lobby their hosting governments to issue public statements of opposition to ruling issued by The Hague.
The report cites an unnamed Israeli official as saying that Israel's allies "send a discreet message" ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda asking her "not to move forward with the investigation against Israeli and not give this case a high priority."
Also on Monday, as the US announced it was rejoining the United Nations Human Rights Council, Jerusalem called on Washington to end the agency's anti-Israel bias – the main reason for which the Trump administration had pulled out of the UNHRC.
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi spoke on the matter with his American counterpart Antony Blinken. A ministry official later expressed "confidence that the US will continue to work to end the institutionalized discrimination against Israel in the UN and will promote the necessary reforms.
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