Will Israel and Trump force the ICC to drop the Netanyahu arrest warrant? Submitted by Sondos Asem on Mon, 02/16/2026 - 22:32 In a wide-ranging interview, Professor Kevin Jon Heller explains the turbulent 15-year history of the Palestine probe, Israel’s challenge to Netanyahu's arrest warrant, and what US sanctions mean for the court's future Off The arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defence Minister Yoav Gallant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2024 have unleashed a ferocious campaign of threats and sanctions against the court by Israel and the United States, primarily aimed at pressuring it to drop the war crimes investigation. To unpack the 15-year process that led to the warrants, Middle East Eye sat down with ICC expert Kevin Jon Heller for the latest episode of the Expert Witness podcast, filmed on 5 February.  Heller also discussed Israel's ongoing attempts to invalidate the warrants, as well as the existential threat posed by the sanctions now bearing down on the court.  Since February 2025, US President Donald Trump's administration has imposed financial and visa sanctions on the court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, his two deputy prosecutors, nine judges, the UN’s special rapporteur on Palestine, and three Palestinian NGOs in connection with the Israel-Palestine investigation. The US has also threatened sanctions against the court itself, which ICC officials consider a "doomsday scenario". ICC judges are currently examining an Israeli challenge to its jurisdiction over the Palestine situation, and a separate Israeli complaint, filed on 17 November, which seeks to disqualify the prosecutor over an alleged lack of impartiality. The court is currently in a state of limbo as Khan has been on a voluntary leave of absence since last year pending a UN-led misconduct probe.  Heller, who has served as Special Adviser on War Crimes to the ICC's prosecutor since 2021, is Professor