Benjamin Netanyahu — "Bibi" — is the sitting Prime Minister of Israel since December 2022, and the leader who has accumulated the most years in power in the history of the country. He is also the first sitting head of government of a Western-allied state to be subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, issued on November 21, 2024, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza. Accused of corruption in three separate cases before Israeli courts since 2019, supported by Donald Trump who demands the cancellation of his trial, surrounded by far-right ministers who call for the annexation of Gaza and the erasure of Palestinian cities, Netanyahu has become, for millions of people around the world, the face of the oppression of the Palestinian people. Who is he really?
To understand the consequences of his policies on the Palestinian people, read our article on the Nakba: history, meaning and memory of a people. And for the complete history of the international recognition of Palestine, read our article on which countries support Palestine.
What Are Netanyahu's Origins and Ideological Formation?
Benjamin Netanyahu was born on October 21, 1949 in Tel Aviv, into a family that left him no ideological freedom. His father, Benzion Netanyahu, was a nationalist historian, disciple of Ze'ev Jabotinsky — founder of revisionist Zionism, the right wing of the Zionist movement, which advocated integral, militarist and expansionist nationalism. Benzion passed on to his sons a bleak view of the world, based on the conviction that antisemitism is a permanent constant of human history, that Arabs cannot be peace partners, and that Israel can only survive through force. "Arabs are barbarians," he declared in a 2009 interview. "The fundamental problem is that Islam presents us as enemies."
Benjamin grew up between Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the United States, where his father taught Jewish history at several universities. This American immersion profoundly marked his relationship with political communication and the American right — he developed a command of English and a TV rhetoric that earned him the nickname "the politician best trained in the world for Anglophone media." He received a degree in architecture from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1975, then a master's in management studies from the Sloan School of Management at the same institution.
Before his studies, he served in the Israeli army in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit — Israel's most prestigious special operations unit, analogous to the American Navy SEALs. He participated notably in the hostage liberation operation from a Sabena aircraft in 1972. His older brother Yonatan, commander of the same unit, was killed during Operation Entebbe in 1976 — during the Israeli raid in Kenya to free passengers from a hijacked Air France plane. Yonatan's death, who became an Israeli national hero, profoundly marked Benjamin and fueled his obsession with fighting "terrorism."
How Did Netanyahu Become Prime Minister of Israel?
Netanyahu's political career was built on diplomacy and media communication long before electoral politics. In 1982, he was spotted by Moshe Arens, Israel's ambassador to Washington and Likud figure, who made him his right-hand man. In 1984, he was appointed Israel's ambassador to the UN — a position from which he defended the Israeli cause on the international stage with formidable effectiveness, notably during the 1975 UN resolution that equated Zionism with racism. His TV performances established him as Israel's media face in the West.
Elected to the Knesset in 1988 under the Likud banner, he rose rapidly through the ranks. In 1996, at 46, he became the youngest Prime Minister in Israeli history, defeating the incumbent Labour candidate Shimon Peres by a narrow margin of 29,000 votes out of 3 million voters. His first term (1996-1999) was marked by the deliberate slowdown of the Oslo Accords, the resumption of settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and tense relations with the Clinton administration, which saw him as an obstacle to peace. Defeated in 1999 by Labour's Ehud Barak, he returned to office in 2002 as Finance Minister under Ariel Sharon, before retaking the Likud leadership in 2005.
His second term began in 2009 and lasted until 2021 — 12 consecutive years that made him the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israeli history, surpassing the record of David Ben Gurion. These years were marked by repeated cycles of violence in Gaza, the systematic blocking of the peace process, the accelerated expansion of settlements in the West Bank, the rift with American Democrats under Obama, and the growing alliance with the nationalist right in America and Europe. In 2015, he delivered a speech before the US Congress against Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal — without informing the White House, an unprecedented breach of protocol that permanently poisoned his relations with the Democrats.
In 2021, a heterogeneous coalition of right-wing, centrist and Arab parties ousted him. He returned to power in December 2022, leading the most right-wing coalition in Israeli history.
What Is Netanyahu's Alliance with the Israeli Far Right?
The coalition formed by Netanyahu in December 2022 is described by many international observers as "the most extremist government in Israeli history." To build a majority in the Knesset after five elections in four years, Netanyahu struck a deal with two far-right parties: the Religious Zionism party of Bezalel Smotrich and the Jewish Power party of Itamar Ben Gvir.
Bezalel Smotrich, appointed Finance Minister and minister within the Defense Ministry with authority over the West Bank, describes himself as a "homophobic fascist" — his own words. He calls for "eliminating" Palestinian towns like Huwara after settler attacks, advocates for the segregation of Arab and Jewish women in maternity wards, considers gay people to be "animals" and believes Palestinian women represent a "demographic threat." The December 2022 coalition agreement gave him control over settlement policy in the West Bank — he has used it to accelerate the legalization of illegal outposts and the allocation of funds for settlement infrastructure.
Itamar Ben Gvir, appointed National Security Minister with authority over the Israeli police — including in the West Bank — openly admires the late Meir Kahane, founder of Kach, classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the EU and Israel itself since 1994. Ben Gvir long had a portrait of Baruch Goldstein — the perpetrator of the Ibrahimiyya mosque massacre in Hebron in 1994 (29 dead) — hanging in his living room. In August 2023, he stated bluntly that "my rights, those of my wife and children to travel on the roads of Judea and Samaria count more than the right to freedom of movement of Arabs." He has repeatedly provoked incidents at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and blocked ceasefire attempts in Gaza.
The coalition agreement explicitly states that "the Prime Minister will work to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria" — the biblical designation for the occupied West Bank. It was long thought that this alliance with Ben Gvir and Smotrich was a marriage of convenience to secure his majority. In reality, Netanyahu is also a supporter of "Greater Israel," analysts note. He did not use these terms publicly — preferring to speak of a "new Middle East" — but his policies since 2022 point unmistakably in this direction.
What Are the Consequences of Netanyahu's Policies on the Palestinian People?
Netanyahu's policies since his return to power in 2022 have had catastrophic consequences for the Palestinian people — well before October 7, 2023. In the West Bank, the pace of settlement construction reached record levels under his government: according to UN data, the 700,000 Israeli settlers installed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem represent a 15% increase since 2022. Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has exploded: according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), incidents of settler violence more than doubled between 2022 and 2023. Entire Palestinian villages have been emptied of their inhabitants under pressure from armed settlers, with the complicity or inaction of the Israeli army.
In Gaza, Netanyahu's long-term policies created the conditions for the disaster. Since 2007, he maintained and reinforced the blockade of Gaza — a policy deliberately intended, according to internal Israeli documents revealed by Haaretz, to keep the enclave "on the verge of collapse without tipping into it." This strategy also consisted, according to the same sources, of strengthening Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian Authority in order to prevent the emergence of a credible Palestinian interlocutor who could demand the creation of a state. On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack of unprecedented brutality — 1,200 Israeli deaths, the vast majority civilians, 251 hostages — in a context of growing anger and despair.
The Israeli military response under Netanyahu's direction has destroyed more than 60% of buildings in Gaza according to satellite imagery analyzed by the UN. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed according to the Gaza Health Ministry — the majority women and children according to UNRWA statistics. More than 1.9 million people have been displaced — representing 90% of Gaza's population. Hospitals, schools, mosques, water and electricity infrastructure have been systematically targeted. The use of famine as a weapon of war — deliberately depriving the population of food, water, fuel and medicine — is at the heart of the charges brought against Netanyahu by the ICC. For symbols of Palestinian resistance to this oppression, read our article on the legacy of Yasser Arafat.
Why Did the ICC Issue an Arrest Warrant Against Netanyahu?
On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued two arrest warrants — against Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is a historic first: the ICC, created in 2002, had never before indicted political leaders of Western-allied countries against the will of the United States and the European Union.
The ICC declared it had found "reasonable grounds" to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant were "criminally responsible" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts. The two men "intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population of Gaza of objects indispensable to its survival," including food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity.
The arrest warrant application was filed in May 2024 by ICC prosecutor Karim Khan — a British jurist whose courageous decision broke the taboo of impunity for Western allies. Netanyahu responded by calling the decision "antisemitic," comparing himself to Captain Dreyfus. Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC — but the 125 member states of the Court are theoretically obliged to arrest Netanyahu if he enters their territory. "Benjamin Netanyahu's world has just shrunk considerably," headlined France 24 the day after the announcement.
In practice, enforcement is complex. On November 27, 2024, the Quai d'Orsay declared that Netanyahu benefits from "immunity" on the grounds that Israel is not a member of the ICC — a position that the Ligue des droits de l'Homme and the FIDH describe as a "lie," as it is explicitly contradicted by Article 27 of the Rome Statute that France itself has ratified. On February 2, 2025, France officially authorized Netanyahu's plane to cross its airspace. On July 7, 2025, he flew over France again — Ireland, Iceland and the Netherlands having refused overflight, his plane had to make a 400 km detour to pass through France. Hungary under Viktor Orbán received him with honors. But Germany suspended its arms exports the same month, and several countries recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv. Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard declared: "The wheels of international justice have finally caught up with those allegedly responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Palestine."
What Are the Corruption Cases Threatening Netanyahu?
Alongside the ICC warrant, Netanyahu has faced three separate corruption cases before Israeli courts since 2019 — he is the first sitting Prime Minister in Israeli history to be indicted and tried while in office.
Case 1000: Netanyahu allegedly accepted luxury gifts from billionaire businessmen — cigars, champagne, jewelry, clothing — in exchange for political favors. His wife Sara and he are accused of having received more than $260,000 worth of gifts. Case 2000: Netanyahu allegedly negotiated favorable coverage in the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in exchange for legislative support against the newspaper's competitor, the daily Israel Hayom. Case 4000, the most serious: Netanyahu is accused of having granted Shaul Elovitch, owner of the news site Walla News, regulatory benefits potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars for his telecom group Bezeq, in exchange for favorable coverage. This case involves a bribery charge punishable by 10 years in prison.
Netanyahu denies all charges, calling them a "witch hunt." In November 2025, he asked Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon him — an exceptional procedure before a verdict. He invokes "national interest." Trump, a long-time friend, publicly endorsed this request, declaring on Truth Social that the trial is a "politically motivated witch hunt" comparable to his own legal troubles. In June 2025, Trump went further, implicitly threatening to condition US military aid to Israel on the cancellation of the proceedings. The verdict is not expected before 2026 at the earliest.
What Are Netanyahu's Relations with World Leaders?
Netanyahu's international standing has profoundly deteriorated since October 7, 2023. For Netanyahu and his far-right government, this could be one war too many. The human, economic and now diplomatic cost of the wars engaged since October 2023 is disastrous.
With Donald Trump, Netanyahu maintains a relationship of complicity and mutual dependency. Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in 2017, supported the Abraham Accords, defended Netanyahu against his prosecutors and received him at the White House. But the relationship has its limits: in 2025, Trump imposed a ceasefire on Israel in Lebanon by posting on Truth Social "Israel will not bomb Lebanon, they are FORBIDDEN from doing so by the United States" — publicly reminding who holds the real power in this relationship. To understand the full history of American policy on Palestine, read our article on relations between the United States and Palestine.
With European leaders, isolation is growing. France, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Portugal recognized Palestine in 2024-2025. Spain imposed a total arms embargo. Germany temporarily suspended its deliveries. Italy, France and Spain recalled their ambassadors in May 2025. The United Kingdom sanctioned Ben Gvir and Smotrich. No G7 leader — except Trump — gives him unconditional public support.
With the Arab world, the normalization begun with the Abraham Accords (UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan in 2020) has stalled. Saudi Arabia, whose normalization was Netanyahu's major diplomatic objective, suspended negotiations after October 7. Jordan's King Abdullah and Egyptian President Al-Sisi publicly condemned operations in Gaza and refused to accept Palestinian refugees.
With Israeli society itself, distrust is real: hundreds of thousands of Israelis have demonstrated every week since 2023 for the release of hostages and for early elections. Netanyahu is accused of having sacrificed the hostages to his political calculations and to the pressure from his far-right allies, who threatened to bring down the coalition if a ceasefire was concluded.
Resisting Netanyahu Through Culture and Solidarity
Faced with Netanyahu's policies and the oppression they impose on the Palestinian people, solidarity is expressed around the world — in the streets, universities, parliaments, and in everyday acts. Wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh, displaying a Palestinian flag, wearing our Netanyahu War Criminal t-shirt or our Netanyahu Criminal pins and our Stop Genocide pins — these are ways of making your commitment visible.
To go further, read how to help Palestine every day.
For the personalities around the world who resist Netanyahu and support the Palestinian cause, read our Top 25 pro-Palestinian personalities. 🇵🇸
Sources
— Amnesty International France, ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, November 2024.
— France 24, "Benjamin Netanyahu's world has just shrunk considerably", November 2024.
— RTS, The ICC issues arrest warrants against Netanyahu and the head of Hamas's armed wing, November 2024.
— RTBF, Ben Gvir and Smotrich, the far-right ministers who lead Netanyahu by the nose, 2025.
— GRIP, Netanyahu Government VI: towards an acceleration of colonization, 2023.
— Heidi.news, Netanyahu's Israel turns its back on the world, and vice versa, April 2026.
— Middle East Eye, Netanyahu corruption trials: What are the charges and will he be pardoned?, December 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions about Benjamin Netanyahu
Why does Netanyahu have an international arrest warrant?
On November 21, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza since October 8, 2023. The ICC found "reasonable grounds" to believe that Netanyahu was "criminally responsible" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder and persecution. It is the first time in ICC history that political leaders of a Western-allied country have been indicted.
What are the corruption charges against Netanyahu?
Netanyahu has been prosecuted since 2019 in three separate cases: corruption and breach of trust (acceptance of gifts from billionaires), negotiating favorable media coverage in exchange for legislative support, and bribery in the Bezeq/Walla News case (regulatory benefits worth hundreds of millions of euros in exchange for favorable coverage). He denies all charges. In November 2025, he requested a presidential pardon supported by Donald Trump.
Who are Ben Gvir and Smotrich in Netanyahu's government?
Itamar Ben Gvir (National Security Minister) and Bezalel Smotrich (Finance Minister, with authority over the West Bank) are the two far-right figures Netanyahu needs to maintain his majority in the Knesset. Ben Gvir openly admires Meir Kahane, founder of an organization classified as terrorist. Smotrich calls for "eliminating" Palestinian towns and has described himself as a "homophobic fascist." Together, they block ceasefires in Gaza and accelerate colonization in the West Bank.
Can Netanyahu be arrested in France or Europe?
Theoretically yes — the 125 ICC member states are obliged to arrest Netanyahu if he enters their territory. In practice, no. France officially invoked a fictitious "immunity" and authorized Netanyahu's plane to cross its airspace twice (February and July 2025). Hungary received him. The UK did not arrest him. The enforcement of the warrant remains a major political challenge.
What is the impact of Netanyahu's policies on the Palestinian people?
Since October 7, 2023, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza according to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 60% of buildings in the enclave have been destroyed according to UN satellite data, and 1.9 million people have been displaced. In the West Bank, 700,000 Israeli settlers occupy Palestinian land and settler violence has doubled under the Netanyahu government since 2022. The deliberate starvation of Gaza's population is at the heart of the ICC charges.