Lebanon-Israel deal could block war crimes accountability, experts warn
A framework agreement signed between Lebanon and Israel has drawn warnings that a clause in the deal could effectively shield Israel from accountability for war crimes.
Article 13 of the 14-point trilateral framework, signed on 26 June, commits Israel and Lebanon to "take good faith measures that demonstrate positive intent, including the cessation of all hostile or adverse actions in international political or legal fora."
The provision has raised alarm among Lebanese human rights and legal experts.
"The violations committed in Lebanon give the Lebanese state and people the right to seek reparations," Halima Kaakour, a Lebanese MP who is also an international law expert and human rights advocate, told Middle East Eye.
"This provision disregards that right and deprives the Lebanese people of justice. The right to justice is more important than any agreement," she said.
"The clause reflects a political decision by the Lebanese authorities not to pursue action before international forums in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal - which is itself a right and should not have to be traded for anything else," she added.
Since October 2023, Israel has been accused of committing multiple war crimes during its war on Lebanon, including the forcible displacement of more than one million people and the deliberate targeting of civilians. At least 8,000 Lebanese people have been killed by Israeli attacks since the beginning of the war.
Since a fresh escalation on 2 March during its war on Iran, Israel has killed more than 300 medics and rescue workers, and almost a dozen journalists, among the more than 4,200 killed over the past four months.
'The clause reflects a political decision by the Lebanese authorities not to pursue action before international forums in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal'
- Halima Kaakour, MP
Farouk al-Moghrabi, a former government legal adviser, denounced the agreement with Israel as an attempt to override international legal frameworks designed to uphold victims' rights and ensure accountability.
"This right belongs to the Lebanese people and the victims; not even the state or the authority signing the agreement has the power to abolish it, he told MEE.
"The provision is fundamentally unlawful, as the Lebanese Constitution establishes that international agreements and treaties take precedence over domestic law," he added.
Al-Moghrabi also questioned what the clause would mean for an upcoming visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to document violations, asking whether Lebanon would be required to refuse such documentation under the terms of the deal.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's National Human Rights Commission said that no agreement should prevent victims from seeking justice.
"The commission emphasises that prosecuting perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture does not constitute an act of hostility or a political stance, but rather a legitimate exercise of the rights to justice," it said in a statement.
MEE reached out to the Lebanese presidency for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.
ICC jurisdiction
Israel and Lebanon are not members of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the court has no current jurisdiction over crimes committed on Lebanese territory.
But human rights groups have long campaigned for the government to take action to grant the court jurisdiction over its territory.
For the ICC to exercise jurisdiction over Israeli or Lebanese nationals in relation to the conflict, either country would need to become parties to the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding treaty, or Lebanon could file a declaration under Article 12(3) granting the court jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory.
Ukraine, then a non-member, used the same mechanism following Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014. Civil society organisations have been urging the Lebanese state to join the ICC or recognise its jurisdiction over the situation in Lebanon since October 2023.
In April 2024, Lebanon came close to doing so. The Council of Ministers instructed the foreign minister to file a declaration that the ICC could exercise jurisdiction from 7 October 2023, following Israel's killing of journalist Issam Abdallah and reports detailing Israel's use of white phosphorus against civilians. But a month later, the government backtracked without providing a reason, and the declaration was never filed.
MEE understands that the reversal was driven by fear that Lebanon would itself be investigated in relation to military acts carried out against Israel.
The framework agreement was signed at the State Department in Washington on 26 June, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing it as "the beginning of the beginning". The US brokered the direct talks, which began in April, and is itself a signatory to the trilateral agreement.
The agreement, reached after five rounds of direct talks, includes a pilot effort under which Lebanese soldiers would take control of two areas occupied by Israel, as well as a process aimed at disarming Hezbollah.
It does not, however, specify when or under what conditions Israel would withdraw from the large areas it occupies in Lebanon. Instead, it ties any withdrawal to security developments and the removal of any threat to Israel, effectively making it contingent on Hezbollah's disarmament.
Hezbollah has long maintained that it will not disarm while Israel continues to pose a threat and occupy Lebanese territory. Secretary-General Naim Qassem called it "null and void", insisting Israel must leave Lebanon unconditionally.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said the framework agreement allows Israeli forces to continue to occupy southern Lebanon if Hezbollah does not disarm.
Netanyahu framed the signing of the deal as a "major blow" to Iran.
"Iran is trying to force us into a withdrawal from southern Lebanon by force," he said.
"In effect, Israel, Lebanon, and the United States are telling them: this is none of your business," he added.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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