The focus of this Court (ICC) is on individual responsibility and accountability. It was created through The Rome Statute, a Treaty adopted in 1998 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and Genocide. It was an important step in the development of international law.
According to Jamil Dakwar, Human Rights Head for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Adjunct Professor at NYU & Hunter College, NY, the trials of individuals from Bosnia and Rwanda involved separate War Crimes Tribunals that were ad hoc, that is, not permanent institutions. There was a need to create a permanent court of last resort. The main point of the ICC was to deter and fight those getting away with international war crimes, which many countries are either unable to unwilling to prosecute. (5th June ,2024)
Canada was the 14th country to sign on to the ICC, in December, 1998. The ICC now has 124 member countries, a substantial majority of the world’s states. Dozens of states are not members, however, including China, Russia, India, the US, and Israel. They don’t recognize its jurisdiction.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, KC, a British Barrister elected by ICC States parties in 2021, has recently announced that the ICC is seeking arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, and for three Hamas leaders. Khan has to be convinced that there is reasonable ground to believe that these individuals have committed war crimes. The matter is now in the Pre-trial Chamber, where a panel of 3 judges from the ICC will decide if warrants should be issued. A prosecution by the ICC also cannot go ahead if the individuals in question are being held to account by their own country. Israel, says Dakwar, has a history of creating commissions of inquiry, right back to the Sabra/Shatila massacres it committed in Lebanon in 1982, and the lethal attack on the Mavi Mavara, first Gaza Freedom Flotilla in 2010, but these commissions didn’t involve any serious investigation of war crimes. So the ICC has stepped in this time.
Jurisdiction for the Court is based on Palestine’s admission to the ICC in 2015, when the UN recognized Palestine as an Observer State. At that time, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas leader (against whom an ICC warrant is currently being sought for October 7th) wanted to involve the ICC after 2014’s “Operation Protective Edge’, when Israel attacked Gaza, killing 2200, mostly women and children, and injuring some 30,000 others.
The warrants against the Hamas leaders are based on the horrific October 7 attack on Israel. The warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant are based on Israel’s ongoing deliberate starvation of Palestinians in Gaza, and the intentional withholding of humanitarian aid to victims of Israeli violence. It’s important to note that Netanyahu will be the first Western leader to be indicted by the ICC. This is significant, as the ICC has been criticized for only arresting alleged war criminals from former Yugoslavia or African countries.
The arrest warrants mean that if any of these men venture into a country that is a member of the ICC, they are subject to immediate arrest, followed by trial for the crimes with which they are charged.
According to Gideon Levy, Israeli Journalist with newspaper Ha’aretz, this is a moment the whole elite in Israel is afraid of. This is no longer just about the UN and its prosecution of the State of Israel for “plausible genocide”; it is now personal and these men are concerned about themselves. They can no longer travel without risk of arrest. They will be “wanted men” and that is a game-changer.
Stephen Zunes is a Professor at University of San Francisco and expert in US foreign policy & human rights. He says the US is very hostile to the ICC and in fact during the Bush 2 years, passed a law authorizing an invasion of The Hague if the ICC applies its jurisdiction to the US. Could it be that the US was/is concerned that some of its leaders might be indicted? Names like Henry Kissinger, Dick Cheney & Donald Rumsfeld come to mind when speculating as to why the US didn’t sign onto the ICC when it was formed in 1998. Zunes points out (Inside Story, Al Jazeera, 3rd May, 2024) that Israel is a very small country, not a huge one like Russia. (There was an arrest warrant issued for Putin in 2023.) The US may well be the only western country these men can safely travel to, if under indictment. As well, he considers that indictments may increase the possibility of sanctions against Israel by trade unions, the human rights community, etc. The political impact could be quite significant, affecting Israel’s economy, which was already down by 20% last quarter of 2023. Israel (pop. 10 million) is short several hundred thousand workers, having banned all West Bank Palestinians from working in “Israel proper” since October 7th.
Zunes says the whole Gaza War becomes far more controversial within Israel with indictments like this, and Israel will feel some impact. As Palestinians and many Israeli activists* tell us time and time again, Israel needs the international community to insist that it change course and accept the necessity of two peoples living in equality, with justice and freedom for all, before peace and security will come to the region. They can’t do it alone.
*Such as Amira Haas, Ilan Pappe, Jeff Halper, Gideon Levy, Zochrot, Breaking the Silence, Combatants for Peace & Boycott from Within.
