Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the late US Senator Lindsey Graham secretly collaborated days before the 2024 US election to discredit the International Criminal Court (ICC), the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Recordings obtained from British filmmaker Alex Holder reveal that Netanyahu requested a bipartisan letter from American lawmakers to protest potential arrest warrants against him.
The Israeli leader suggested using sexual misconduct allegations against then-Prosecutor Karim Khan to create a "cloud" or "stain" on the proceedings.
Member states of the ICC voted on Friday to dismiss the chief prosecutor following sexual misconduct allegations, which Khan denies.
Graham successfully recruited Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal and Ben Cardin for the effort, telling Netanyahu, “We got them both.”
Graham instructed Netanyahu to personally thank the Democratic senators and express interest in Saudi-Israel normalisation to “encourage” their continued backing.
The resulting letter, released on November 1 2024, included allegations against Khan’s sexual misconduct and argued that the ICC failed to comply with the law by cancelling a meeting with Israeli officials before applying for warrants.
The ICC eventually issued arrest warrants in November 2024 against Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 73,000 people, most of them women and children, since 2023.
