Communication to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Legal Responsibility of the President of the European Commission for aiding and abetting the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide by the Israeli military forces in the Occupied Palestine Territory (OPT) including the Gaza Strip

1. This is a follow-up on the communication submitted to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI) and other institutions on 22 May 2024, This initial communication set forth in detail the grounds justifying opening an investigation against the current president of the European Commission, Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, a national of Germany, for complicity in grave violations of international humanitarian law, amounting to crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC, in contravention of articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute, committed by the Israeli armed forces (IDF) against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including the Gaza Strip.[1]

2. This follow-up communication by the Geneva International Peace Research Institute, made pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute of the ICC, urges the Prosecutor to initiate investigations proprio motu on the basis of the existing information provided against Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, the cumulative evidence in the public domain and the solidly documented submissions to the International Court of Justice by numerous governments, including those of South Africa[2] and Nicaragua[3].

3. GIPRI renews its call on the Prosecutor to proceed as requested in the legal brief submitted on 22 May 2024 and recently confirmed in the appeal of the Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967[4]. On 4 May 2025 Albanese again called for accountability of Mrs. Ursula van der Leyen and other European Union officials for complicity in the genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinian people, a crime within the meaning of article 6 of the Rome Statute and article III e of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide[5]. Albanese stated:

“The fact that the two highest figures of the EU continue business as usual engagements with Israel is beyond deplorable … I’m not someone who says, ‘History will judge them’ – they will have to be judged before then. And they will have to understand that immunity cannot equate with impunity.”[6]

Professor William Schabas of Middlesex University in London has commented:

“Von der Leyen is clearly reflecting a position taken by many EU-governments, which is one of very unconditional support of Israel, and they’re doing this flying in the face of public information suggesting that Israel is committing terrible crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.”[7]

4. Since the filing of the GIPRI communication of May 2024, the genocide in Gaza has not only continued but has become more deliberate, thorough and systematic. The complicity of European institutions and personally of Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, is public record. Ursula von der Leyen’s own words demonstrate her complicity, as documented by governmental and non-governmental institutions. At issue is not only the crime of complicity, but also the concerted effort to deny that the crimes and atrocities committed by Israeli forces against Palestinians constitute genocide, and the attempt by official European institutions to downplay the use of hunger as a weapon of war as being somehow justified as “self-defense”. The crime of apology of genocide and crimes against humanity can also be understood as a form of “incitement” to hatred and violence within the meaning of article III c of the Genocide Convention.

5. In the period since May 2024, abundant evidence of the crime of genocide and of the complicity of Ursula von der Leyen and other European institutions has been submitted to the International Court of Justice. GIPRI makes reference to the pertinent findings laid down in the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice of 19 July 2024[8], and to the pertinent Reports of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel[9]. In this connection, GIPRI refers to the oral submissions made by 39 countries before the International Court of Justice in the hearings that took place from 28 April to 2 May 2025 concerning the pending General Assembly request to the ICJ to issue an Advisory Opinion concerning the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, Other International Organisations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.[10]

6. GIPRI recalls that the 1948 Convention against Genocide constitutes jus cogens and that all States and all State institutions are obligated not only to punish, but far more importantly to prevent genocide. This is an erga omnes obligation reaffirmed in the ICJ Judgment in the case Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro[11]. Far from taking concrete measures to prevent the on-going genocide against the Palestinians, the European Commission and Ursula von der Leyen have continued to support the criminal actions of the government of Israel by providing military, political, economic, diplomatic and propagandistic support to the genocidal State, including by furnishing the means for the commission of the crimes in question, within the meaning of Article  5(3)(c) of the Rome Statute.

7. Article 17(1)(d) of the ICC Statute provides that the Court shall determine that a case is inadmissible, if “the case is not of sufficient gravity to justify further action by the Court”. According to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC, the criteria of gravity of a crime can be evaluated through the factors of scale, nature, manner of commission, and impact of the crimes.[12] It has already been abundantly documented that the current situation in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories satisfies all these factors.

8. GIPRI reiterates its request that the Prosecutor act on GIPRI’s initial submission of 22 May 2024. GIPRI is prepared to submit additional information to further substantiate the urgent request for action by the ICC. Every day that passes more human beings lose their lives, constituting irreparable harm not only to the victims, but to civilization itself.

Signatories

Dr. Dr. Johannes van Aggelen, retired human rights officer, OHCHR, Brazil;

Bilqees Akoodie, LLB, Johannesburg, South Africa;

AJPO, Avocats pour la Justice au Proche-Orient, Service Associations du Barreau, Paris;

Cristina Cabrejas, Peace Researcher, Madrid;

Timothy Clennon, antiwar activist, Geneva;

Marjorie Cohn, Professor Emerita, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego;

Abdeljalil Dhahri, jurist, president of the Association CRI – Voix des Victimes,Geneva;

Professor Curtis Doebbler, International-Lawyers.Org (INTLawyers) – Geneva, Switzerland, and Makeni, Sierra Leone.

The Law Office of Dr Curtis FJ Doebbler – Austin, Texas, USA, Professor of Law, University of Makeni, Makeni, Sierra Leone;

Professor Glenn Diesen, University of South-Eastern Norway;

Pierre-Emmanuel Dupont, Senior Lecturer in international law at the Catholic Institute of Vendée, France;

Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and EuroMediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967, Santa Barbara, California;

Professor Norman Finkelstein, New York;

Dr. Gabriel Galice, President, GIPRI, Zurich;

Pierre Galand, former Belgian Senator and President of the Belgo-Palestinian Association, Brussels 4;

Asdrúbal González, Director General, Red Nacional de Derechos Humanos, Madrid;

Professor Gilles-Emmanuel Jacquet, Geneva School of Diplomacy, Switzerland;

Diana Johnstone, Ph.D. author of Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions. France;

Thomas Kaiser, Historian, Journalist and Dozent für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, Zürich;

Peter Koenig, economist, former World Bank official;

David Lopez, representative AIDHDES, Geneva;

Pascal Lottaz, PhD Associate Professor Hakubi Center, Faculty of Law, Kyoto University, Japan;

Soaade Messoudi, humanitarian aid worker, Geneva;

Craig Mokhiber, former head of the High Commissioner of Human Rights Office in New York;

Helmut Müller, Blogger, Vienna;

Jonathan O’Connor, former UN official, Geneva;

Robert James Parsons, Journalist, Geneva;

Josh Paul, former Director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, Bureau of Political and Military Affairs, US State Department;

John Perry, Human rights activist, Masaya, Nicaragua;

Dr. Martha Schmidt, Co-chair, Human Rights Framework Project, International Committee, National Lawyers Guild, Bothell, Washington;

Prof. Dr. Axel Schönberger, Universität Bremen, Germany;

Prof. Dr. Luis Suarez Villa, School of Social Ecology, University of California at Irvine;

David Swanson, Executive Director, World Beyond War;

Patrick Taran, President, Global Migration Policy Associates, former UN official;

Alejandro Teitelbaum, Jurista, Representante de la Federación Internacional de Derechos Humanos (1986–1989) y de la Asociación Americana de Juristas (1989–2006) ante los organismos de la ONU en Ginebra;

Prof. Dr. Burkhard Voigt, Universität Hamburg, Germany;

Dr. med. Kristina Wiedelmann-Breloer, Frankfurt am Main, Germany;

Professor Dr. Alfred de Zayas, Geneva, former Human Rights Council Independent Expert on International Order

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Notes

¹ https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/27/call-for-the-icc-to-investigate-ursula-von-der-leyen-for-complicity-in-war-crimes-and-genocide/
² https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192
³ https://www.icj-cij.org/case/193
⁴ https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-palestine
⁵ https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-palestine/francesca-albanese; https://theintercept.com/2025/05/03/eu-israel-palestine-war-crimes-accountability/
⁶ https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/eu-president-must-face-war-crimes-charges–albanese; https://www.sott.net/article/499421-UN-Special-Rapporteur-Francesca-Albanese-EUs-von-der-Leyen-beyond-deplorable-on-Gaza
⁷ https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/eu-president-should-be-tried-for-complicity-in-israel-s-war-crimes-says-top-un-expert-on-palestine/ar-AA1E6DID
⁸ https://www.icj-cij.org/index.php/node/204160
⁹ https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4051243?v=pdf
¹⁰ https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/196/196-20250502-pre-01-00-en.pdf; https://www.icj-cij.org/index.php/node/205429
¹¹ https://icj-cij.org/case/91
¹² OTP, Policy Paper on Case Selection and Prioritisation, 15 September 2016, para. 38.

Featured image: EC President von der Leyen, 2023. Facebook

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