Benjamin Netanyahu’s official aircraft flew through the airspace of Greece, Italy and France as the Israeli prime minister travelled to New York to address the UN General Assembly, despite his International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant in force.
Though the ICC found “reasonable grounds” to believe Netanyahu bore criminal responsibility for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and other inhumane acts, in connection with Israel’s military attacks on Gaza, the three EU states fell short of taking the relevant action to enforce his arrest.
All three countries are parties to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. However, France has argued that the treaty does not require a state to prevent a state aircraft carrying a person wanted by the ICC from flying through its airspace. French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said the authorisation was therefore “in full conformity with international law”.
This contrasts with Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Spain, whose governments have publicly indicated that they would comply with or enforce the warrant if Netanyahu entered their territory.
The differing positions have renewed questions over how European states interpret their obligations towards an ICC arrest warrant, and why a wanted individual can travel through the airspace of several ICC member states while remaining beyond their reach.
