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international criminal court
Israel: The Country Whose Actions Never Represent Itself
As a country that invests heavily in public relations and presenting itself in a positive light, Israel often claims its representation lies in anything but its own actions.
May 22, 2026
On Wednesday, Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, publicly shared videos of the mistreatment of the activists of the Global Sumud Flotilla, illegally intercepted by Israeli forces earlier this week in international waters, including in broad daylight.
In addition to condemnation by representatives of several countries, Ben Gvir also faced internal criticism. Israel’s Prime Minister himself, Benjamin Netanyahu, expressed his disapproval by saying that “[t]he way that Minister Ben-Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel's values and norms.”
This is where I invite you to pause the unfolding story. Let’s put what we are seeing in other words: Israel’s Prime Minister, who has an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, is telling one of his ministers that his treatment of illegally captured activists doesn’t match Israel’s values and norms. Netanyahu says that after congratulating the Israeli army for intercepting the flotilla just days ago. According to him, this kind of abuse is not what Israel is about; Ben-Gvir, his own minister, should not form our image of Israel.
A question comes to mind: If it is not his own government official's, whose actions, according to Netanyahu himself, should we consider as we form an image of Israel’s values and norms?
For the ones willing to listen, Israel’s actions have spoken louder than any of its hasbara statements and have represented its values and norms very clearly.
Could it be when the Israeli soldiers continuously brag about their looting in Gaza on social media, when armed settlers—protected by the Israeli army—increasingly torch Palestinian houses in the West Bank, or when “Death to Arabs!” is being shouted with pride by the marchers on Jerusalem Day each year?
Would any state policy exemplify those values and norms? Like what we can read in the multiple reports describing systematic torture and sexual violence in Israeli detention (reports by the United Nations, B’Tselem, and Amnesty International)? And if someone argues that the Israeli government is not in fact showing what has become normalized through this specific state policy, it is difficult not to wonder what its values and norms have become when the detention of prison guards, caught brutally sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee on camera, is protested by fellow Israelis, when they are welcomed to Israel TV stations, and finally acquitted of any crime?
This is what this story illustrates: While Israel claims to represent many (for example, the global Jewish community), conveniently, no one seems able to represent Israel itself. Because if official state policies, military instructions and actions, public demonstrations, and the conduct of prison guards supported by the people do not represent Israel’s values and norms, the notion of Israel’s representation has become nothing more than what we find in political dystopias: just words we are supposed to accept.
The words become both the representation and the represented: The world’s most moral army is so because that is how it describes itself; there is no forced starvation because those responsible deny it; the abuse of the Global Sumud Flotilla crew is an exception because the war criminal in charge says he does not approve of it.
This is how simple Israel’s hasbara has become. And if it purely relies on the credulousness of its audience, who is left in that audience by now?
It is clear to see that this Orwellian reality is cracking. US citizens’ support for Israel is at an all-time low. The petition to suspend European Union-Israeli trade reached over a million signatures. Even something as seemingly unshakable as Europe’s fascination with Eurovision saw five countries and many viewers boycott the show due to Israel’s participation. The Government Pension Fund of Norway, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, divested from 11 companies, including Israeli banks, because of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. For the ones willing to listen, Israel’s actions have spoken louder than any of its hasbara statements and have represented its values and norms very clearly.
Ultimately, what Netanyahu’s comment shows is a complete disconnect from reality. And perhaps that is the ultimate representation of how Israel and its supporters are left to operate.
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Israel's Smotrich Responds to ICC Arrest Warrant by Announcing More War Crimes
The far-right finance minister announced that he'd respond to an arrest warrant request for his forced expulsion of Palestinians by ordering the evacuation of another West Bank village.
May 19, 2026
Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Tuesday that the International Criminal Court prosecutor had requested an arrest warrant against him, reportedly in response to his illegal forced expulsion of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank.
He said he planned to "fight back" by issuing an order to forcibly evict hundreds more Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank.
During a news conference, Smotrich said he'd been informed Monday evening that the ICC prosecutor had secretly requested a warrant for his arrest in April. A formal warrant has not been announced by the court, and the official charges have not yet been publicized.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that the prosecutor had been considering seeking an arrest warrant against Smotrich for his role in expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in July 2024 was a violation of the Geneva Conventions because it entailed the forced removal of residents in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The ICC prosecutor was also preparing to issue an arrest warrant against fellow far-right settler politician, Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, though there is not yet any reporting to suggest that this warrant has been issued.
Already, the ICC has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
In response to the reported warrant request for what the ICC considers a war crime, Smotrich celebrated the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the West Bank. He boasted of creating “over 100 new settlements” in the occupied territory and “160 farming outposts,” which he said helped Israel to control 247,000 acres of land in the territory.
The United Nations reported in March that over the previous year, more than 36,000 Palestinians in the West Bank had been forcibly displaced by settlement expansion and by violence committed by Israeli settlers.
Smotrich said the court's issuing of arrest warrants against him and other Israeli leaders was a "declaration of war" and said that "we will respond with war."
"From today, every economic or other target within my authority to strike—whether as Finance Minister or as a minister in the Defense Ministry—will be attacked. Not with words or gimmicks, but with actions," he said.
"I announce here and now the first target that will be attacked: immediately after my remarks, we will sign an order for the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar," he added.
He was referring to a Palestinian Bedouin village of about 200 people on the eastern outskirts of Jerusalem, which has fought a yearslong legal battle against the Israeli government following orders by Ben-Gvir for it to be demolished to make room for a settlement.
The territory is especially significant because it would link two major settlements in East Jerusalem with the Jordan Valley as part of Israel's ongoing E1 settlement project, which is aimed at constructing settlements so that they cut the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank in two.
Smotrich, who has led the E1 project, declared last year that the proposal “buries the idea of a Palestinian state because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize."
On Tuesday, Smotrich said his order for Palestinians to leave Khan al-Ahmar would be "only the beginning" of his response to the reported warrant request.
Jasper Nathaniel, an American journalist who reports from the West Bank, explained that "Smotrich just announced the official ethnic cleansing of a Palestinian village in response to the ICC warrant for his arrest."
Observers pointed out the brazenness of Smotrich's declaration in the face of an international tribunal.
Adil Haque, a professor of law at Rutgers University and the executive editor of Just Security, noted the remarkable irony: "The ICC office of the prosecutor reportedly requested an arrest warrant for his war crimes, so he announces a new one."
Along with Ben-Gvir, Smotrich was sanctioned last year by five countries—Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom—which subjected them to travel bans and asset freezes.
Ori Goldberg, an Israeli expert on Middle Eastern studies, said international punishments against Smotrich needed to be even stronger after he announced "as stark a violation of international law as possible."
"Make the warrants public. Sanction this man and everybody else who foots the bill. EU Leadership—stop making fools of yourselves as the world is torn asunder," he said. "Show Israelis... the jig is up."
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'Spain Does Not Look the Other Way': Sánchez Calls on EU to Block Israel-US Sanctions on ICC
"Sanctioning those who defend international justice puts the entire human rights system at risk," said the Spanish prime minister.
May 06, 2026
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez asked the European Commission on Wednesday to block compliance with US sanctions against the International Criminal Court over its arrest warrants against Israeli leaders accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Last February, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order sanctioning the ICC, citing its warrants in November 2024 for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
The ICC said at the time that the sanctions were meant to "harm its independent and impartial judicial work," potentially restricting officials’ access to US-linked property, services, travel, banking, and financial transactions, as they investigate widespread human rights violations and accusations of genocide during the more than two-year military campaign, which has resulted in the deaths of at least 72,000 Palestinians according to official estimates.
In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday, Sánchez called for the immediate activation of the European Union's Blocking Statute, which is designed to protect European citizens from the effects of foreign sanctions.
"Spain does not look the other way," Sánchez said in a post to social media. "Sanctioning those who defend international justice puts the entire human rights system at risk."
"The EU cannot remain idle in the face of this persecution," he continued. "That is why, today, we ask the commission to activate the Blocking Statute, to protect the independence of the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, and their actions to end the genocide in Gaza."
In addition to the ICC, Sánchez said that the commission should also shield Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, whom the Trump administration also sanctioned in July, claiming that her stark criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza helped to "prompt" the ICC investigation.
Following the announcement, Albanese issued a message of thanks to Sánchez over social media.
"Gracias, Presidente Sánchez," she wrote. "For your words, for your principled stance, and for trying to steer Europe away from the abyss."
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