Arrest warrant applications against two prominent Israeli ministers on charges of apartheid are ready and with two deputy prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Middle East Eye can reveal.

If the warrants for National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are issued, it will be the first time that the crime of apartheid is charged at an international court.

“Those applications for the arrest warrants are completely done,” an ICC source told MEE. “The only thing that didn’t happen was submitting them to the court,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

Two ICC sources told MEE that the two deputy prosecutors, Nazhat Shameem Khan and Mame Mandiaye Niang, have not filed the applications due to the threat of US sanctions.

British-Israeli ICC defence lawyer Nicholas Kaufman told Israel’s Kan public broadcaster in June that the US sanctions on four ICC judges were “meant to be designed to encourage the dropping of the arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant”. Raji Sourani, a lawyer representing Palestine at the ICC and ICJ, criticised the deputy prosecutors for their delay in applying for the warrants.

Raji Sourani, a lawyer representing Palestine at the ICC and ICJ, criticised the deputy prosecutors for their delay in applying for the warrants.