Israel petitioned the International Criminal Court on Monday to remove chief prosecutor Karim Khan from its case, saying he pursued charges against Israeli leaders to distract from sexual harassment accusations lodged against him.

Israel also asked the court to cancel its arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over Khan’s allegations that they perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population.”

The petition came after two women submitted complaints against Khan for workplace sexual misconduct. One is an ICC employee, who alleged the misconduct occurred as recently as 2024 and that Khan attempted to dissuade her from making claims against him.

In a leaked recording of a phone call between Khan and the ICC employee, she lamented that she had been accused of being a “Mossad plant” over the complaint. Khan was recorded telling the woman that someone had leaked the complaint to the media to “get rid of the warrants for Palestine,” among other open cases.

According to The Guardian, private investigators hired by Qatar had attempted and failed to find a link between the accuser and Israel.

Khan went on leave in May, while the ICC conducted an internal investigation into the allegations against him.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the reports “raise serious concerns that the prosecutor acted with inappropriate personal motivations to advance false and baseless allegations against Israel to distract public attention from the serious accusations against him.”

The Foreign Ministry also clarified that it continues to maintain that the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant are void and that the court did not have the authority to issue them.

Elliot Malin, an international lawyer who has filed petitions to the ICC, including against Iran for abetting Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, evaluated Israel’s chance of success in its petition to be “50-50.”

Sources in the ICC “thought the request for warrants [against Netanyahu and Galant] were premature,” Malin told Jewish Insider. “When Khan requested a warrant for the crime of extermination, it was rejected. … Extermination is a lower-threshold crime than genocide, and the threshold to grant warrants is extremely low. You only have to present that you might have a case, so the fact that judges reject it is noteworthy.”

At the same time, Malin said that the warrant for intentional starvation was “based on hearsay,” so it seems the decision may have been “political, because they rejected a lot [of other charges], saying that Khan didn’t show evidence that demonstrates those crimes.” 

“If the court wants to do its best to appear objective, it’s in its interest” to remove Khan, Malin added.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Wednesday that the U.S. would sanction Francesca Albanese, the widely criticized United Nations special rapporteur for Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio said in a statement. “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”

She is being sanctioned under the Trump administration’s executive order targeting the International Criminal Court. 

Members of Congress from both parties, as well as officials in both the Trump and Biden administrations, have condemned Albanese for her bias against Israel, downplaying and justifying the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, denying Israel’s right to defend itself and utilizing antisemitic rhetoric, among other issues, calling repeatedly calling for her to be dismissed. The French and German governments have also condemned the U.N. official.

A group of House members issued another call for her dismissal as recently as last month.

“The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies,” Rubio continued.

The sanctions would bar Albanese from entering the U.S., where she has conducted speaking tours, and freeze any assets she, or any of her family members, have in the U.S.

“As chair of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, I applaud Secretary Rubio’s decision to impose sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese,” Leo Terrell, a senior counsel at the Justice Department, told Jewish Insider. “In May, I wrote a public letter calling for her removal due to her long and troubling record of antisemitic rhetoric. This long-overdue step sends a clear message: such hatred will not be tolerated.“

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, praised Rubio for the decision. 

“Her relentless and biased campaign against Israel and the United States has long crossed the line from human rights advocacy into political warfare,” Danon said. “Albanese has consistently debased the credibility of the UN by promoting false, dangerous narratives that are detached from reality.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), who has led multiple communiques from Congress calling for Albanese to be fired and recently said she has “blood on her hands,” told JI, “Today’s sanctions are …  an important step in response to Ms. Albanese’s regular antisemitism.”

“However,” Sherman continued, “until [the] UN removes Ms. Albanese from her post, it is clear that the UN continues to endorse antisemitism within its ranks.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East subcommittee, said, “Francesca Albanese’s absurd campaign against the U.S. and Israel ends today. We will not tolerate antisemitic witch hunts by the UN and its affiliates.”

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) said, “Albanese is a full-throated supporter of Muslim terror.”

Terrell wrote to Albanese earlier this year condemning her for a series of letters she wrote to organizations and businesses that support and invest in Israel, suggesting they may be criminally liable for genocide and war crimes.

Albanese has also allegedly faced private criticism from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, which has scrutinized Albanese’s activity and history, called Rubio’s decision “bold and courageous.” 

“No U.N. official has ever been sanctioned before in history,” Neuer told JI. “Then again, no U.N. official has ever been condemned for Holocaust distortion and antisemitism by France, Germany, Canada, and both Democratic and Republican US administrations. … She will never again spread her poison on American campuses or enter the country. Justice is served. Good triumphs over evil.”

Jewish Insider congressional correspondent Emily Jacobs contributed reporting.

BUDAPEST, Hungary — More countries plan to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in remarks to the press on Thursday with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, soon after Budapest announced that it would exit the court.

“You and your leadership have done remarkable things for Israel and the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said to Orban. “You stand with us at the EU and the U.N. You took a principled position on the ICC.”

Netanyahu called on “all democracies to stand up to this corrupt organization. It is important as we fight this battle against barbarism.”

“You are the first and dare I say not the last to walk away from this corruption, this rottenness,” he said to Orban.

Netanyahu and Orban spoke on the phone with President Donald Trump on Thursday about Hungary’s withdrawal from the ICC and possible next steps on the matter, according to a readout from Netanyahu’s office.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Kahn issued warrants last year to arrest Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes. In response, Hungary said at the time that it would not honor the warrant and invited Netanyahu to visit. Several other countries have said they would not arrest Netanyahu and Gallant were they to visit, but out of caution, the prime minister has thus far only traveled to the U.S. — which, like Israel, is not a party to the court — and Hungary.

In Budapest, Buda Palace rolled out the red carpet, receiving Netanyahu with an honor guard including a military marching band, cavalry and guards holding bayonets.

Orban said that he is “actually an expert when it comes to this matter” of the ICC because, as prime minister in 1999, he signed Hungary’s accession to the court.

“I am convinced that it has become a political court, not a court of the rule of law,” he said. “We do not wish to have any part of it in the coming period.” 

Orban and Netanyahu also spoke of their countries as defenders of Western civilization.

“In recent years, Hungary has been an island of freedom in Europe, the standard-bearer of Judeo-Christian tradition … Israel can count on Hungary in the future as the impenetrable bastion of Judeo-Christian culture,” Orban declared.

The Hungarian prime minister tied issues on the continent to “illegal migration,” saying that it “contributed to the increase of antisemitism.”

“The Brussels elite does not move to stop [migration], however, Hungary does not accept any type of migration,” he said.

“There is a phenomenon that surprised all of us,” Orban said. “In Western Europe, antisemitism reached levels never before seen. People waving Hamas flags. There is zero tolerance in Hungary for antisemitism.”

Orban described the Hungarian Jewish community as the “third largest in Europe and the most safe in Europe.”

About 80,000-100,000 Jews live in Hungary, making it the third-largest community in the EU, and the country reports lower than the European average levels of antisemitism, according to a report published last year by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

Echoing Orban, Netanyahu said that “Western civilization is under assault from one powerful quarter: radical Islam.”

But rather than tie the issue to migration, Netanyahu said that the assault is “spearheaded by one country, Iran.”

”We were attacked by Iranian proxies in a murderous campaign, and we will smash the Iranian terror axis, which threatens not only us, but Europe and many of our neighbors in the Middle East. By doing that we are also protecting Europe,” he said, adding that Orban understands this while many other leaders do not.

More than half a million Hungarian Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, with the Hungarian government closely collaborating with the Nazis and killing tens of thousands on their own. Orban has faced accusations of whitewashing Hungarian complicity in the Holocaust.

The Hungarian prime minister briefly referenced the Holocaust in his remarks, saying that “Jews had a difficult past in Hungary [but] now regard it as their home.” 

Netanyahu also downplayed Hungary’s role in the Holocaust. He recalled a visit to the country in 1991, when he was Israel’s deputy foreign minister and the countries were reestablishing relations.

“You had exited the ravages of World War II only to be under a new type of occupation, and it took many decades to liberate yourselves,” he said.

Netanyahu said that was reminiscent of the struggles of the Jewish people, which he acknowledged were at “another level,” and said “one-third of our people were murdered in the Holocaust, and we had to reestablish our historic homeland against all odds.” 

He also praised Orban’s “bold stance against antisemitism,” including adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which, he said, “says that if you think there shouldn’t be a Jewish state, you’re an antisemite.”