There was a revealing post in the welter of reaction that followed the all too predictable dismissal of the Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday. It was made by Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, who warned New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Danon repeated the claim - that now appears to be established as fact - that Khan used the warrants against Netanyahu and his former defence minister to cover up his alleged sexual misdemeanours.
As Middle East Eye investigation made clear, Khan launched the meticulously prepared warrants six weeks before he was even aware of the allegations. But truth and due process were irrelevant in the 18-month campaign to remove Khan.
This included a media campaign in the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, The Guardian and latterly CNN; private warnings by David Cameron, then foreign secretary, who told him Britain would defund the ICC and withdraw from the Rome Statute if the warrants were issued; Republican senators who told him: "Target Israel and we will target you", and being named publicly as a suspect before he had even had the chance to defend himself by the president of the Assembly of State Parties (ASP), Finland's Paivi Kaukoranta.
Following the removal of Khan, the ICC’s office of the prosecutor said its work would continue without interruption. The ICC has more than a dozen active investigations in Ukraine, Darfur, Libya and Afghanistan.
But as MEE reported, the office sought in April to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and another for National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was being prepared. Those applications were ready before Khan went on leave in May 2025 and nothing has happened since.
