argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Israel's espionage and threats to intimidate the international criminal court
  • The Guardian, +972 and Local Call publish a new study explaining in detail the espionage, hacking and threats against the charges of the International Criminal Court (NZA), which the Israeli Government has been conducting since 2015. In that year Palestine became a member of the CNS, and this scared Israel because this court, which is not a member of Israel, can investigate the internal crimes of the member states. The result of the NZA’s legal investigation is the consultation of arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant.
Jenofa Berhokoirigoin @Jenofa_B 2024ko ekainaren 05a
NZAko prokuradore Karim Khanek eskaturiko atxilotze aginduek Israelen eta AEBen kritika gogorrak eragin ditu. Argazkia: NZA

On 20 May we knew that Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, demanded arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Minister of Defence, Yoav Gallant. Having regard to the necessity and necessity of the genocide in the Gaza Strip in the depressed area. The media The Guardian, +972 and Local Call publish the investigation eight days later, it is best understood that the prosecutor would advise at the time: "I insist, all attempts to hinder, intimidate or unjustly influence those responsible for this Court must be put to an end."

We can read the conclusion of this journalism work, Spying, hacking and intimidation, which reveals the research: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the ICC exposed in the report: "Israel has directed its information agents to surveillance, piracy, pressure, defame and threaten senior CNS officials to divert polls from this tribunal."

The three media have jointly conducted a reliable investigation based on the statements of significant actors of the political and investigative conflict between Palestine and Israel: They have spoken to about 25 people, including some Israeli information service workers, some former or government officials, senior CNS officials and lawyers and diplomats close to the investigation. The study reveals that the Israeli spy agency Shin Bet, the military intelligence directorate Aman and the cyber-intelligence unit, 8,200, are in this strategy drawn by the Israeli Government’s national security advisors. They channel maliciously stolen information to the ministries of Justice, External Relations and Strategic Affairs.

Dirty game to avoid convictions

In January 2015, Israel launched this strategy with the approval of Palestine as a member of the CNS. The Israeli representatives saw the decision as "diplomatic terrorism" and launched a "war" against this structure, in order to thwart the investigations that Hungary could conduct against Israel. In fact, the integration of Palestine made possible the possibility of prosecuting war in relation to crimes or crimes against humanity, only because this court investigates and punishes those who are led in the Member States. Israel is not a member EE.UU. it's not fundamentally. The statement of a source demonstrates this concern in the Government of Israel: "Some high-ranking officials were fearful of occupying positions for the West Bank, fearful of being tried in The Hague."

Donor hacking and listening to phone calls has been one of Israel's spy routes. Knowing that Israel is prohibited from accessing Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem to NZA representatives, the survey facilitators should communicate by email or by telephone. One of the sources of the research tells them how some 60 names to follow on a whiteboard, half Palestinians and the other half representatives of the United Nations and the CNS. A witness clearly confesses to them: "We have taken advantage of the ways to follow Fatou Bensouda [former NZA prosecutor between 2012 and 2021], as a military intelligence agent it is not, high, legitimate." They also followed those of the Palestinian NGOs, which brought evidence of crimes to the court. Among these NGOs is the Al-Haq Human Rights Association, classified in 2021 by Israel as a "terrorist group".

The information gathered was, among other things, for secret meetings with forensic representatives who were denied between 2017 and 2019. Indeed, from the principle of complementarity of the CNS, the Hague Tribunal cannot investigate and punish a person if he or she has already started at the state level against an internal investigation that could lead to knowledge of what needs to be said and what is accused.

In 2019 these clandestine meetings ended, when Bensouda stated that there were "just bases" to begin the investigation of war crime. Israel then intensified espionage and pressure, with clear and personal threats against the prosecutor. Intelligence Agency Director Mossad himself, Yossi Cohen, presses "infamous" through repeated phone calls and unannounced visits. It gives you the following warning: "It's better that you help yourself and let you take care of yourself. It would be better not to associate these initiatives that could compromise their safety and that of their family".

The United States is always there next door.

The study also reveals the role of EE.UU. in this strategy: monetary and visa cuts, Trump administration's economic sanctions against Bensouda and other high forensic charges in 2020, "brutal" pressures not to prolong the request for arrest warrants, etc.

After Bensouda's mandate, Khan took the witness in 2021. Israel’s abuse of Palestine did not, I would say, have priorities, but it changed things the day after 7 October. After seven months and 35,000 months he was going to ask for arrest warrants, also in Israel against those responsible for Sixteen. The decision to combat all kinds of pressures and threats is significant and should serve to raise awareness of the seriousness they suffer in Gaza. What is more, in the knowledge that this is the first time that a prosecutor of the Hague court has called for an arrest warrant against a Western ally.