Leaked emails expose Israeli ‘legal warfare’ unit shielding officials from war crimes cases abroad

A major cross-border investigation has revealed that the Israeli regime established a covert unit more than a decade ago to counter war crimes prosecutions targeting its political and military figures at foreign courts.

The investigation, led by French outlet Mediapart in partnership with eight European media organizations, whose results were reported on Monday, is based on a leak of more than two million internal emails exchanged between 2009 and 2023.

The documents show that the unit, created in 2010 and housed within the regime’s “justice ministry,” was tasked with conducting what officials internally described as “legal warfare” to obstruct criminal and civil cases in Europe and at international tribunals.

According to the findings, the department used a combination of legal tactics, diplomatic engagement, and political pressure to interfere with proceedings behind closed doors.

Internal correspondence details efforts to influence judges, lobby foreign governments, and derail cases brought under universal jurisdiction laws, which allow national courts to prosecute grave crimes regardless of where they were committed.

Preventing the arrest of Israeli officials abroad emerged as a central objective. Senior political and military figures were repeatedly advised not to travel to specific European countries due to the risk of detention.

Leaked emails cited by the media partners show the unit taking credit for the collapse of dozens of criminal and civil cases against the regime and its officials across Europe and other regions.

The contents of the documents also indicate interventions in lawsuits involving the companies supplying the Israeli military or operating in the regime’s illegal settlement projects. Relevant legal actions in Spain, the Netherlands, and France were targeted through coordinated maneuvers.

In Spain, sustained lobbying efforts contributed to the closure of a case against a former minister for military affairs and senior military officers guilty of involvement in an attack that killed 14 civilians, including children, in the Gaza Strip.

In the Netherlands, the investigation found that Tel Aviv secretly financed a settlement in a lawsuit against a Dutch firm supplying attack dogs to the Israeli army, while concealing its role from the Palestinian victim’s legal team.

The investigation further reported that the unit devoted substantial resources to limiting action by the International Criminal Court.

Internal emails cited by the media partners suggested that officials believed they had succeeded in delaying an ICC investigation into war crimes across the Palestinian territories by nearly a decade.

According to the documents, the strategy relied on discreet lobbying in The Hague, the seat of the ICC, and cultivating informal contacts within the court to keep proceedings focused on jurisdictional debates rather than moving toward a formal investigation.

ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant last November for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, whom the regime began subjecting to a war of genocide in October 2023.

The United States, the regime’s biggest ally, has already sanctioned nine ICC staff members, including six judges and Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, for pursuing cases involving American and Israeli officials.

Washington is now considering extending sanctions to the court as a whole.

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