UN, May 21 (IPS) – The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to seek warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant sparked strong opposition from the Biden administration and pro-Israel senators. done. In the US Congress.
The ICC arrest warrant also names Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh.
As expected, US President Joe Biden, a staunch supporter of Israel, which continues to provide billions of dollars in US weapons used to destroy Gaza, described the ICC’s charges as “outrageous” and compared Israel to Hamas over war allegations. refused to do so. Crime and crimes against humanity.
“Let me be clear: no matter what this prosecutor may imply, there is no parity or parity between Israel and Hamas,” he said in a statement. “We will always stand with Israel against security threats.”
Sarah Leah Whitson, Secretary General of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), told IPS that the prosecution’s application for arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas officials is a response to decades of impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He said it was a milestone. Palestine.
“The U.S. Congress’ commitment to attack prosecutors and the ICC would be an attack on international justice and the rule of law. “If the United States doesn’t file an ICC warrant, don’t expect other countries to file an ICC warrant either.”
“While prosecutors have applied for initial arrest warrants for war crimes related to the ongoing war in Gaza, subsequent warrants should charge Israeli officials with ongoing settlement projects that constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute .” Whitson said.
“Efforts to ‘balance’ warrants for Israeli officials with an equal number of warrants for Palestinian officials would be an embarrassing concession to political calculations.”
In a letter to ICC Prosecutor Karim A. Khan last week anticipating indictments against Israel, a group of 12 U.S. senators said: Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. “Such actions are illegal and lack legal basis and, if carried out, will result in severe sanctions against you and your institution.”
“Issuing the warrant calls into question the legitimacy of Israel’s laws, legal system, and democratic form of government. “Issuing arrest warrants for Israeli leaders is not only unjustified, it exposes the hypocrisy and double standards of the organization.”
“Finally, neither Israel nor the United States are members of the ICC and therefore outside the jurisdiction of your organization. “If an arrest warrant is issued for the Israeli leadership, we will interpret it as a threat not only to Israeli sovereignty but also to American sovereignty,” he warned.
The request must be approved by ICC judges, but “the announcement is a blow to Netanyahu and is likely to spark international criticism of Israel’s war strategy in the Gaza Strip,” the New York Times reported May 20.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said, “Just as President Biden acknowledged that the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine was ‘justified,’ so should he. “he said. The same can be said about the application for an arrest warrant sought by ICC prosecutors against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
“War crimes are war crimes, regardless of whether they were committed by so-called allies of the United States,” he said. “Biden must not stand in the way of clear and credible arrest warrants that ICC prosecutors require for Israeli leaders who committed genocide in Gaza, and he must not allow our country to continue to fund such war crimes.”
“Benjamin Netanyahu is a racist mass murderer who has no intention of stopping his campaign of starvation and genocide in Rafah and the rest of Gaza unless President Biden forces him to do so. The time has come,” Awad said.
Michael Omer-Man, DAWN’s director of Israel-Palestine research, told IPS that prosecutors are seeking an initial arrest warrant for war crimes related to the ongoing war in Gaza. It is a war crime under the Rome Statute.
“Efforts to ‘balance’ the warrants against Israeli officials with an equal number of warrants against Hamas officials would be an embarrassing concession to political calculations,” he noted.
Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, told IPS that the ICC itself has long been guilty of selective prosecution, limited by the influence of global power politics. This week’s news of appropriate legal action against Israel and Hamas gives hope that the ICC is beginning to break away from its ethnocentric self-imprisonment. The biggest factor in Israel’s continued massacre of civilians in Gaza is that country’s extremely brutal militarism and the U.S. government’s massive support for that militarism. Few wars have been so widely and passionately condemned by so many people and countries around the world. “The war in Gaza is truly a crime against humanity on a gigantic and ongoing scale. Solomon, national director of RootsAction.org and author of “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its,” said not only the Israeli leaders who committed the massacre should be held accountable, but also the U.S. government that enabled it. “Military machines.”
In reality, he said, uniform human rights standards are difficult to maintain in public discourse and virtually impossible to enforce globally.
As noted in the ICC’s new announcement, war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed by leaders of Israel and Hamas since early October 2023. Of course they deny the charges, but they deny the human consequences of them. “The crimes they oversaw are appalling,” he noted. He argued that the truth of the matter was unacceptable from the perspective of the US government, Israel’s main supporter. That’s why President Biden felt it necessary to immediately condemn the ICC’s application for an arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minister and the so-called Minister of Defense.
“What Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant have been doing for over seven months cannot be defended on any moral or legal grounds.” Even greater than Hamas’ crimes against humanity, which must be clearly condemned, are those of the Israeli government, which has been heavily subsidized by U.S. military and rhetorical support, Solomon said. “Based on the evidence collected and examined by my office, I believe that Yahya SINWAR (head of the Islamic Resistance Movement in Gaza (“Hamas”)), Mohammed Diab, and Ibrahim al-Masri (better known as DEIF) (commander-in-chief of the Hamas military wing) Ibrahim AL-MASRI) Al Qassam Brigade) and Ismail Haniyeh (Political Director of Hamas) are criminally responsible for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the territory of Israel and the State of Palestine (Gaza Strip) since at least October 7, 2023:
- • Extermination as a crime against humanity contrary to Article 7(1)(b) of the Rome Statute; • Murder is a crime against humanity against Article 7(1)(a) and a war crime against Article 8(2)(c)(i). • Making hostage-taking a war crime contrary to Article 8(2)(c)(iii); • Rape and other acts of sexual violence are crimes against humanity under Article 7(1)(g) and, in captivity, war crimes under Article 8(2)(e)(vi). • Torture in captivity as a crime against humanity contrary to Article 7(1)(f) and as a war crime contrary to Article 8(2)(c)(i); • Other inhumane acts, while in captivity, which are crimes against humanity contrary to Article 7(l)(k); • Cruel treatment while in captivity considered a war crime contrary to Article 8(2)(c)(i); and • Violations of personal dignity as war crimes while in captivity, contrary to Article 8(2)(c)(ii).
Regarding Israel, the ICC prosecutor said, “Based on the evidence we collected and investigated, there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are criminally responsible.” For the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Palestinian Territories (Gaza Strip) from at least October 8, 2023:
- • Starvation of civilians as a method of war as a war crime contrary to Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Act; • intentionally causes great suffering or serious injury to body or health, contrary to Article 8(2)(a)(iii), or causes cruel treatment constituting a war crime, contrary to Article 8(2)(c)(i); ; • Intentional murder under Article 8(2)(a)(i), or murder as a war crime under Article 8(2)(c)(i); • directing intentional attacks against civilians as war crimes contrary to Article 8(2)(b)(i) or 8(2)(e)(i); • Article 7(1), including death by starvation; Extermination and/or murder contrary to Articles (b) and 7(1)(a) are crimes against humanity. • Persecution as a crime against humanity contrary to Article 7(1)(h); • Other inhumane acts are crimes against humanity contrary to Article 7(1)(k).
“Our office asserts that the war crimes alleged in this application were committed in the context of an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, and a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas (along with other Palestinian armed groups). We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of widespread and systematic attacks against Palestinian civilians in accordance with state policy. “In our assessment, these crimes continue to this day.”
“Our office believes that the evidence we have collected, including interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, authenticated video, photos and audio material, satellite images and statements from perpetrator groups, shows that Israel has deliberately and systematically dispossessed civilians at all levels. It shows. “Please store in Gaza the items that are essential for human survival.”
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