Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and former head of Mossad Yossi Cohen (R). (Credit: Gali Tibbon/AFP)
For the last nine years, Israel has deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior staff at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in an effort to derail the Court’s inquiries, according to findings from an investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call.
In an article published Tuesday, the Guardian revealed that Israeli intelligence captured the communications of numerous ICC officials, including Judge Karim Khan and his predecessor as prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, intercepting phone calls, messages, emails and documents.
The joint investigation draws on interviews with more than two dozen current and former Israeli intelligence officers and government officials, senior ICC figures, diplomats and lawyers familiar with the ICC case and Israel’s efforts to undermine it.
By spying on the ICC, Israel was given advance knowledge of the forthcoming arrest warrants against Netanyahu and other senior officials which, weeks later, Khan announced having applied for.
One intelligence source that participated in the investigation described Netanyahu as being “obsessed” with intercepts regarding the case.
Interception and surveillance were overseen by his national security advisors and involved Shin Bet (domestic spy agency), Aman (military intelligence directorate) and Unite 8200 (cyber-intelligence division).
An ICC spokesperson told the Guardian that the Court was aware of “intelligence-gathering activities” but that none of the recent attacks had penetrated its core evidence holdings, which remained secured.
Between 2015 and 2021, Yossi Cohen, former head of Israeli foreign intelligence, allegedly threatened Fatou Bensouda, the Gambian lawyer and then Prosecutor of the ICC, through secret contacts, the investigation revealed. The former Mossad official, in the role since 2016, tried to force the current Gambian High Commissioner to the UK to abandon her investigation into war crimes in the Palestinian territories. The Guardian cites four sources, informed via official communiqués from the prosecutor, who confirmed that Bensouda was concerned about Cohen's increasing attempts to intimidate her and had informed senior ICC officials.
The case dates back to 2015, when the prosecutor decided to open a preliminary examination of the situation in Palestine with an initial assessment of allegations of crimes committed by individuals in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The senior judges then received warnings from the Israeli intelligence services, according to the British newspaper.
When the prosecutor officially launched a criminal investigation in 2021, Cohen initiated an operation to undermine the proceedings. As a career spy and loyal ally of Netanyahu, he personally led a nearly decade-long campaign to undermine the court, according to the Guardian.
Israel’s efforts to pressure the ICC were coordinated with the Trump administration, which had imposed visa restrictions and sanctions on Bensouda between 2019 and 2020, in response to an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan involving US servicemen, the Guardian reported.
Threats and intimidation
Having initially tried to get cozy with Bensouda, Cohen’s tactics eventually escalated to threats and manipulations, the investigation found.
Bensouda disclosed Cohen’s attempts to sway her with a small group of senior ICC officials. Three sources familiar with her official disclosures say Cohen threatened her with the words: “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”
Israeli officials obtained transcripts of secret recordings of Bensouda’s husband, attempted and ultimately failed to discredit her with them.
Bensouda completed her nine-year term at the ICC and left the investigation with her successor, Karim Khan, who filed a request with the Court last week for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas officials.
In the lead-up to this decision, Khan warned that he would prosecute any "attempt to obstruct, intimidate or unduly influence" ICC officials. A spokesperson for the Court declined to comment on specific allegations but confirmed that Khan's office had been subjected to "several forms of threats and communications" that could be perceived as attempts at swaying the course of justice.