"In Israelis' wallowing and victimhood; in endless self-righteous panels on TV; in cries about an antisemitic world and the injustice of bundling Israel with Hamas, there's one fundamental, fateful question missing: Did Israel commit war crimes in Gaza? No one dares deal with this critical, key question: Were there, or were there not, crimes?"
Gideon Levy
"It is not enough to blame Netanyahu, the main culprit, nor is it enough to whitewash this with evasive arguments about hasbara, faulty legal counsel & extreme remarks from Israeli officials. The issue runs far deeper: For 57 years, Israel has been maintaining a regime of wrongdoing and evil, and now, at last, the world is waking up and starting to act against it. Will it also be able to wake up at least some Israelis from their heedless, twisted sense of justice?"
Gideon Levy #Israel#Gaza#ICC
Over 100 MPs and Lords have signed a letter calling on the UK government to respect the International Criminal Court. #ICC#WarCrimes#HumanRights#palestine
Keir Starmer and David Lammy have not signed the letter.
Considering Palestine is NOT a nation. Yet.
"The ICC considers cases against individuals and as such has to be distinguished from the International Court of Justice, which rules on disputes between states, such as the case brought by South Africa against Israel in January 2024 under the 1948 Genocide Convention." https://www.chathamhouse.org/2024/05/icc-prosecutors-applications-arrest-warrants-explained
“As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child’s life has less value than another’s. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law. So I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in #Israel and #Palestine.”
"ICC Charges Against Netanyahu First Time Court Has Gone After Western Leader"
Brody says the charges are "a watershed event in the history of international justice. This is the first time that a Western or pro-Western leader is [the] subject of an indictment request.”
The warrants for Israel’s top leaders must still be approved by a panel of ICC judges.
"Karim Khan, the ICC prosecutor, must request the warrants from a pre-trial panel of three judges, who take on average two months to consider the evidence" & make a determination.
Israel is not a member of the ICC.
Even if the warrants are issued, there is no immediate risk of prosecution, but the threat of arrest could make OS travel difficult.
"His applications wholly ignore, any and all, issues unconnected with the current situation in the Gaza Strip. Nothing about the crime against humanity that is #apartheid, nothing about the war crime of illegal settlement, nothing about #Israel’s previous onslaughts against the #Gaza Strip, or its systematic sniper attacks against demonstrators during the 2018 #GreatMarchOfReturn." - #MouinRabbani
The US opposition to the International Criminal Court (#ICC) and to international law is obviously self-serving. Israel here is merely providing the Americans with an excuse.
For those who don’t know, the US passed a bill in 2002 allowing the state to use any means necessary to protect Americans accused by the ICC. It’s informally known as The Hague Invasion Act, in case you thought they’d be subtle about it.
Anyone who cares about #Ukraine should be very worried about the USA going after the International Criminal Court to defend #Israel. This will easily be used by the Russian state to avoid accountability over its invasion of Ukraine. Biden is making Ukraine more vulnerable while ignoring large parts of his own base. If this leads to a Trump victory it would be a victory for Putin and a further step in the destruction of even the most basic mechanisms of international accountability.