In November 2023, information circulated on the Internet that Türkiye had sent a lawsuit to The Hague against the Prime Minister of Israel, accusing him of organizing genocide in the Gaza Strip. We decided to check whether such publications are correct.

Many Russian media reported about the lawsuit filed against Benjamin Netanyahu with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in mid-November (for example, “RIA Novosti", "Vedomosti", Lenta.ru, "Parliamentary newspaper", "Moscow 24"), social network users also shared the news ("VKontakte", X, Facebook*) And blogging platforms. Popular Telegram channels also published information about the lawsuit against the Israeli prime minister: “Ax Live"(800,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Live broadcast"(716,000), "Before everyone else. Well almost"(436,000), Nexta Live (304,000), "Fast and accurate"(239,000), etc. The blogger also wrote about this Anatoly Shariy (771,000 views) and TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov (210,000).

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, indeed, accused Israel committed war crimes and violations of international law during its military operation in the Gaza Strip after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. He made this statement on November 15, 2023, that is, around the same time that news of the lawsuit against Netanyahu began to spread. Erdogan called the Jewish state terrorist and called on its leaders to answer for their crimes before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Two weeks later, at a speech before his party, Erdogan repeated, that “Israel will be held accountable before the law,” and added that Netanyahu “has already written his name in history as the butcher of Gaza.”

International Criminal Court. Source: justflix CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ICC is considering war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and genocide that were committed by a national of a participating State Rome Statute (the international treaty that resulted in the establishment of the ICC), on the territory of a state party or in a state that has accepted the jurisdiction of the court in a particular case. Also, cases sent there by the UN Security Council can be considered in this court. Partially recognized State of Palestine joined to the Rome Statute in 2015, therefore the alleged crimes in Gaza Strip theoretically can be regarded as committed on the territory of the state party. In this case, the application must be submitted either directly by the Palestinian Authority, or by the UN Security Council, or by a country party to the Rome Statute (in some cases, the ICC prosecutor may begin an investigation on his own initiative). Türkiye, like Israel, is not among the signatories of the document, so it is not entirely clear how Ankara could file a lawsuit against Netanyahu in this court. "Verified" could not be found on website The International Criminal Court has no information about the receipt, much less the beginning of consideration of a lawsuit against the Prime Minister of Israel.

The news of Turkey filing a lawsuit for genocide in the Gaza Strip against Netanyahu appeared on November 14, 2023. This happened after Turkish lawyer Mukahit Birinci posted on his X (formerly Twitter) page: fast that he, together with two other lawyers Burak Bekiroglu and Metin Külyunk, filed a statement of claim with the Istanbul Prosecutor General's Office. In his tweet, the lawyer noted that the application included 23 pages and posted a scan of one of them. Turkish news agency Anadolu reportedthat the prosecutor's office sent a petition to the Turkish Ministry of Justice. One of the authors of the appeal, Bekiroglu, explained Russian news agency TASS that the lawsuit was not sent to the ICC, but is being considered by the Turkish Ministry of Justice.

Although Turkey, not being a party to the Rome Statute, cannot initiate an investigation against Netanyahu at the ICC, it can draw the attention of the court's prosecutors, who, in turn, can open an investigation. However, at the time of writing the analysis, there was no news that the Turkish Ministry of Justice had transferred the appeal of its citizens to the ICC, and the Hague prosecutors had accepted it.

Thus, Türkiye did not file a lawsuit against Netanyahu in the International Criminal Court, since, not being a party to the Rome Statute, it could not do so legally. Three Turkish lawyers, as private individuals, drew up an appeal against the Israeli prime minister and sent it to the Turkish Ministry of Justice, which can only forward it to ICC prosecutors to draw attention to possible war crimes in the Gaza Strip. However, such a document will not be considered a full-fledged claim. Judging by the information available at the time of writing this analysis, this has not yet happened.

*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Cover photo: X Benjamin Netanyahu