RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The UN's special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories on Saturday said the removal of International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan cannot be read in isolation from the campaign to overturn the arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Khan's removal lines up neatly with the fight to neutralize Netanyahu's arrest warrant. Coincidence is a luxury intl law can no longer afford," Francesca Albanese wrote on X, Middle East Eye reported.
"This proves that justice DOES threaten Apartheid Israel & Co. So if the ICC is paralyzed, lawyers and judges worldwide must do more."
Albanese's statement was in response to an Israeli media report that said Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Saar, "played an active role" in efforts to remove Khan.
The report cited a senior Israeli official as saying that "Saar oversaw a dedicated task force and employed intensive diplomatic efforts aimed at securing Khan’s removal from office".
Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in May 2024 over alleged war crimes in Gaza has unleashed a ferocious campaign of threats and sanctions on him and those supporting the court's work on Palestine.
Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer who has held the UN mandate since 2022, was reacting to the vote by ICC member states at a special session in New York to dismiss Khan over misconduct claims.
Eighty-two of the court's 125 states parties backed removal in a secret ballot, exceeding the 63 needed. Thirteen voted against and 15 abstained. It is the first time a sitting ICC prosecutor has been removed.
Albanese has previously accused a “pro-apartheid camp” of seeking to overthrow Khan.
In March, after Middle East Eye revealed that a panel of three judicial experts appointed by the court's own oversight body had unanimously cleared Khan, Albanese wrote that "the pro-Apartheid camp is already working to remove him ANYWAY: those who stand for justice must ensure this attempt fails".
The panel found that the findings of UN investigators "do not establish misconduct or breach of duty under the relevant framework".
The Bureau of the Assembly of States Parties, an executive body of 21 diplomats, voted weeks later to set that conclusion aside.
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