In a first test case for warrants issued by a global court at Hague, Poland is announcing it would arrest Prime Minister Netanayahu of Israel if he attends the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where an estimated 1 million Jews perished as part of the genocidal Nazi war against them. 

“We are obliged to respect the provisions of the International Criminal Court,” Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Władysław Bartoszewski, who is charged with organizing the ceremony, claimed Friday, according to the Polish-language newspaper Rzeczpospolita. Dozens of world leaders are expected to attend the January 27 ceremony. 

The Polish newspaper added that Mr. Netanayhu has not to date applied to participate in the ceremony. Dozens of heads of state or government are expected to come to the event, including some of Europe’s most notable kings and presidents. An Israeli source tells the Sun that no decision has been made yet on whether President Herzog, who is the official head of state, would attend. 

Why then, would a high-ranking Warsaw official rush to announce Poland’s intention to arrest the prime minister of the Jewish state, even before he asked to visit the country? “We hope that Vladimir Putin will finally stand before the ICC. That is why we must comply with the Tribunal’s rulings,” an unidentified official told Rzeczpospolita. 

The ICC issued an arrest warrant against President Putin in March 2023, citing allegations of responsibility for war crimes committed by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Russia has not signed the Rome Statute that established the Hague-based international court to try war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ukraine, which is yet to ratify the Rome Statute, has agreed to cooperate with the ICC in gathering evidence against Mr. Putin. 

In November, three ICC judges agreed with a request made by the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, to issue an arrest warrant against Mr. Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant. Israel is not a member of the court at Hague. Yet, the ICC judges argued it has jurisdiction over alleged crimes in Gaza, which it considers part of an occupied territory of one of its members, the state of Palestine. 

America, which is also not a court member, denounced the ICC decision. President Biden called it “outrageous” and Congress is planning to issue sanctions against ICC officials. Several Republican legislators also demand to sanction countries that cooperate with Hague in executing the arrest warrants. 

Poland’s mostly good relations with Israel are at times marred by Warsaw’s complex politics on the role the country and its people played in the 1940s during the Nazi occupation. Polish legislation in 2018, which aimed to crack down on claims that Poland was complicit in the Holocaust, damaged relations between Israel and Poland. “Those who say that Poland may be responsible for the crimes of World War II deserve jail terms,” Poland’s then-prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said at the time.   

Israel is arguing that the ICC has no jurisdiction over its citizens. According to the Rome Statute, competent independent judicial systems have supremacy over the ICC in trying suspects of crimes. 

Mr. Netanyahu is currently spending two days each week in an Israeli court, where he is accused of alleged bribery and other crimes. In a recent filing at the Hague, Israel argued that its judicial system is competent and independent to try alleged war crimes. 

A separate Hague venue, the United Nations’ International Court of Justice, is hearing arguments related to South Africa’s allegation that Israel has violated its obligations under the genocide convention.

The term, genocide, was coined by a Polish-born Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin, who sought to describe the Nazi crimes in death camps, the most infamous of which is Auschwitz.