Israel calls to remove ICC prosecutor Karim Khan over conflict of interest, sexual misconduct charges

Israel appealed to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday, asking to have the arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant cancelled and to disqualify ICC prosecutor Karim Khan. 

The request to the ICC comes after two women who worked with Khan have filed complaints against him, accusing him of sexual harassment. It also comes after British news site The Guardian reported that one of those women was the subject of a targeted intelligence operation carried out by private intelligence firms, with the involvement of Qatar. 

According to the report by The Guardian, a core goal of the intelligence investigation against the woman was to undermine her credibility. As part of one company’s investigations, they tried to link the woman to Israel, in order to give the appearance that Israel was trying to turn focus away from Khan’s accusations against the two Israeli leaders. 

INSANE SCOOP: Qatar ran a covert intelligence operation targeting the woman who accused anti-Israel ICC prosecutor Karim Khan of sexual abuse — and even surveilled her child.

According to The Guardian, the operation was carried out by Highgate, a London-based “strategic… pic.twitter.com/z8tQiy17de

— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) November 6, 2025

The Guardian said that according to the documents from the investigation that were shared with the news agency, no such connection was demonstrated. However, the agency claimed that Qatar was responsible for commissioning the investigations. 

While Karim Khan has stepped aside from his role as ICC prosecutor pending the results of the internal ICC investigation against him, Israel has asked that he be formally removed from the court’s investigation against the Israeli leaders, claiming a conflict of interest. 

The State of Israel submitted today a request to disqualify the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, and to cancel the warrants concerning Israel

The State of Israel submitted today to the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) a request to disqualify the Court's…

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) November 17, 2025

A statement from the Foreign Ministry said that Israel filed “a request to disqualify the Court's Prosecutor, Mr. Karim Khan, from involvement in proceedings concerning Israel.” 

“Additionally, Israel requests that the Court cancel the baseless arrest warrants issued by the Prosecutor against the Prime Minister, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, and the former Minister of Defense, Mr. Yoav Gallant,” the statement continued. 

Israel maintains that the ICC has no legal authority to investigate or issue arrest warrants for any of its political leaders, as the nation is not a signatory to the 1998 Rome Statute which created the international legal body. The Israeli government maintains that it has an independent judiciary, which is seen in the current corruption trial of Prime Minister Netanyahu, and previous investigations by the Attorney General against political figures. 

Karim Khan maintains his innocence, stating that the charges of sexual misconduct against him, claiming that he “has been the subject of an orchestrated campaign” aimed to discredit his work. 

Khan had previously praised Israel’s judiciary ahead of his surprise announcement of arrest warrants, and had even planned a fact-finding visit to Israel, which was suddenly canceled. Shortly after the surprise announcement of the arrest warrants, Khan was accused by the first of the two female staffers in his office with sexual harassment. 

Last month, Netanyahu accused Khan of using the arrest warrants to distract attention from his own situation, and noted that Khan’s brother, the British MP Imran Ahmad Khan was sentenced to prison for sexual molestation in 2022. 

Elliot Malin, an international lawyer who has filed petitions to the ICC, told Jewish Insider that some people in the ICC “thought the request for warrants [against Netanyahu and Galant] were premature.” 

Khan’s announcement that he was seeking the arrest warrants against the Israeli leaders had come despite the fact that judges in the ICC had rejected a warrant on the crime of extermination, which is a lower level crime than that of genocide, for which Khan was seeking the warrants, Malin told the news site.