Karim Khan, the lead prosecutor in the International Criminal Court's (ICC) case against Israel, alleged that the United Kingdom threatened to cut funding for the court over an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report published by The Guardian on Thursday.
Khan also claimed that the unnamed British official who made the threat during a phone call in April 2024 also warned that the UK might leave the ICC if the court acted on the warrant.
The UK official allegedly argued that the ICC’s warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant were “disproportionate” measures taken in protest of Israel’s response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
Khan previously claimed to have received threats from United States officials who said there “would be disastrous consequences if he were to issue the warrants,” according to The Guardian.
Additionally, he alleged that in a separate call, US Senator Lindsey Graham warned that “applying arrest warrants meant Hamas may as well shoot Israeli hostages.”
Israel appealed warrants, Khan's qualifications
In November, Israel submitted an appeal to the ICC’s Appeals Chamber in an attempt to have the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant annulled.
On November 17, Israel's foreign ministry released a statement announcing that it had submitted an additional appeal seeking Khan's disqualification.
The statement postulated that Khan “acted out of improper personal motives to advance false and unfounded allegations against Israel” in an attempt to “divert public attention from severe accusations against him of serial sexual harassment.”
The sexual misconduct accusations launched against Khan relate to multiple incidents that allegedly occurred between the prosecutor and an employee he was in charge of managing.
The misconduct reportedly included incidents of abuse of authority and coercive sexual behaviors that may have taken place in Khan’s ICC office, at his home, and on official work trips.
According to The Guardian, the incidents were originally reported to an internal ICC watchdog by a third party without the victim's consent. Khan told the source that he was unaware of the allegations until after the watchdog received the reports.
Khan claimed that in his attempts to pursue the warrants, he was “not seeking to advance his personal interests,” and alleged that his efforts to issue the warrants preceded the revelation of the sexual misconduct allegations launched against him.