France criticised for allowing Netanyahu's plane to use its airspace
The French government has been accused of a “serious violation” of its legal obligations by allowing indicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plane to pass over its airspace - for the third time in two months.
Netanyahu, who was issued an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant last year for war crimes in Gaza, travelled from Hungary to the United States last weekend, flying over Croatian, Italian and French airspace en route.
Similarly, in February, a plane carrying Netanyahu from Israel to the US flew over Greece, Italy and France. The return flight is reported to have taken a similar reverse route.
A French diplomatic source told Middle East Eye that the 2 February flight had been “authorised” to use French airspace, which they said was “in full compliance with France’s rights and obligations under international law”.
“The Rome Statute does not impose any obligation regarding the overflight of its territory by a state aircraft carrying a person subject to an arrest warrant,” they added.
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The source would not say whether the 6 April flight was pre-authorised by France, but said that it flew over French airspace in compliance with France's obligations under international law.
As signatories to the Rome Statute, France, as well as Croatia and Italy, must arrest anyone indicted by the ICC.
A group of legal experts have disputed the French government’s interpretation of its obligations.
The Association of Jurists for the Respect of International Law (Jurdi), which brings together French jurists and experts to promote the application of international law in relation to Israel-Palestine, said that Paris’ legal responsibility extends to airspace.
In a letter to President Emmanuel Macron, Jurdi said that Paris likely committed a “serious violation” of its international commitments if it pre-authorised access to its airspace.
It cited the Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed in Chicago in 1944, which says that airspace is a constituent part of a state’s territory over which it exercises sovereignty.
As such, Jurdi said, France is obligated to “arrest any person subject to an arrest warrant present on its territory, including by air”.
Failure to do so would weaken the integrity of the Rome Statute and cast doubts on the “fight against impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious international crimes,” the jurists wrote.
Sarah Sameur, a French lawyer speaking on behalf of Jurdi, said that by authorising the flight plan, France likely ignored its obligation to follow the recommendations of the court.
Sameur told MEE that as the ICC does not have a police force, 66 recommendations were adopted in December 2007 related to the "implementation of concrete strategies for the arrest of suspects".
"The aircraft in question carefully changed its flight plan, avoiding the Netherlands and Ireland, fervent supporters of the ICC," she said.
"We again deplore the fact that France is openly contributing to the failure to achieve international criminal justice and 'normalising' the failure to comply with its legal obligations."
Mathilde Panot, leader of the La France Insoumise (France unbowed, LFI) group in parliament, publicly called on Macron to confirm whether the 6 April flight was pre-authorised.
“Such a decision would be an extremely serious violation of the Rome Statute,” she said on X.
MEE reached out to the Croatian and Italian foreign ministries for comment on use of their airspace, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Hungary withdrew from the Rome Statute last week during the Israeli prime minister’s visit to the country.
'France is complicit'
Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defence minister, are being sought by the ICC over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war on Gaza.
They are accused of starvation of civilians as a method of war, wilfully causing great suffering, wilful killing, intentional attacks on a civilian population and extermination, among other charges.
Netanyahu added 400km onto his flight from Budapest to Washington on Sunday due to fears about flying over countries which may enforce the arrest warrant, Israeli media reported.
Israeli authorities believed that Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands would enforce the ICC warrant in the event that the Wing of Zion state plane needed to make an emergency landing.
The 2 February flight was lengthened for the same reason, Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the US, recently revealed.
He said the flight was forced to take a longer path over US army bases to ensure it did not have to make an emergency landing over ICC members in Europe.
“When the prime minister came here last month, he had to fly 13 1/2 hours - a trip that should take 12 hours - people don’t know this, but the reason is because he couldn’t land anywhere in Europe,” said Leiter.
France has been criticised in recent months for suggesting that it would not arrest Netanyahu because it believed he was “immune” as a senior state official. International law experts told MEE that no such immunity exists.
Posting a picture of Netanyahu’s flight path, French lawmaker Clemence Guette wrote on X that the Israeli prime minister “should have been intercepted and arrested” over the weekend.
“By protecting a criminal, France is complicit in his crimes,” Guette said. “In Gaza, children are still dying under the tyrant Netanyahu’s bombs. Stop the genocide.”
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