Defending IDF Soldiers

Defending against war-crimes allegations

Encouraged by the UN General Assembly’s resolution accepting the Palestinian Authority as a “non-member observer state”, the PA turned to the International Criminal Court and asked it to investigate Israel for “war crimes”.

In December 2019, after a five-year “preliminary examination”, the ICC prosecutor announced her intention to open a criminal investigation focusing on Israeli settlements and on IDF conduct during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge and the Gaza border riots. She made the decision subject to a ruling that the PA is indeed a “state”, and asked the court to rule that the territory of the “State of Palestine” comprises everything within the pre-1967 lines, including Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.

The court has since moved from examination to arrest warrants. In 2024 it invited Shurat HaDin to submit observations on the warrants sought against Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant and Yahya Sinwar, and it went on to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

The danger to IDF soldiers and to Israel

Shurat HaDin warned that an ICC criminal investigation, followed by criminal charges against Israelis, would have devastating effects on the State of Israel. They range from the immediate personal risk to individuals whose only “crime” is serving their country and fighting terror, to the wider effects of delegitimization on Israel’s economy, security ties and international relations.

It warned too that legal recognition of the PA as a “state” whose territory includes the holy places would have dramatic consequences in the international arena, and would turn Jews living in these areas into criminals.

Relying on the ICC to rule in line with the well-established legal framework, under which the PA is clearly not a state, or hoping that the investigation would be fair and that Israelis would have their day in this court, was, in Shurat HaDin’s view, both naive and dangerous.

What Shurat HaDin does

Israel is not a member of the Rome Statute. It refrains from formally taking part in ICC proceedings, so as not to lend them legitimacy or weaken its position that the court lacks jurisdiction. That leaves the floor open.

Shurat HaDin was the first Jewish organization to take on the ICC danger. Its strategy is simple: bring the court compelling evidence that PA and Hamas officials were involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“…either truth shall triumph and this PA move backfires against them, or the ICC’s biased approach will be revealed to all.”

Shurat HaDin, on its ICC strategy

To expose the prosecutor’s selective interest in Israeli “settlements” while she ignores clear cases of occupation and population transfer, Shurat HaDin, representing Cypriot communities, approached the ICC prosecutor about Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus and the transfer of Turkish population to those lands.

It has also confronted ICC prosecutors with detailed information on the PA’s “pay-to-slay” scheme. Palestinian prisoners and their families receive payments whose size and duration depend on the severity of the attack, so the PA pays the largest sums to the most egregious violators of international humanitarian law. The scheme amounts to a mafia contract on the heads of Israelis.

Since October 7th, the Legal War Room has been defending Israel against allegations of war crimes, and documenting the war crimes and crimes against humanity that Hamas perpetrates.

Taking on the prosecutor

Since the court moved to arrest warrants, Shurat HaDin has gone after the prosecutor himself. In August 2025, representing the families of three Israeli hostages, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner sued ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan in Jerusalem, alleging that he aided Hamas by delaying arrest warrants for its leaders.

“…a branch of Hamas dedicated to Israel’s destruction.”

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, describing the ICC, as quoted in Shurat HaDin’s 2025 Annual Report