ICC arrest warrants: Netanyahu is certainly a criminal, but …

Yesterday, nan International Criminal Court (ICC) issued apprehension warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his erstwhile defence minister, Yoav Gallant, “for crimes against humanity and warfare crimes committed from astatine slightest 8 October 2023 until astatine slightest 20 May 2024”, arsenic per nan ICC press release.

An apprehension warrant was besides issued for Hamas subject commandant Mohammed Deif, though this peculiar item will proceed to beryllium wholly ignored by nan Israeli establishment, which prefers to stay up successful arms complete its allegedly singular victimisation. In nan eyes of Israel, nan ICC determination constitutes a horrifying show of anti-Semitism and moreover support for “terror”.

Among nan warfare crimes charges against Netanyahu and Gallant are that “both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived nan civilian organization successful Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and aesculapian supplies, arsenic good arsenic substance and electricity, from astatine slightest 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024”. The second day refers to nan time that nan ICC charismatic revenge nan applications for nan apprehension warrants and is not, obviously, an denotation that Israeli warfare crimes successful nan Gaza Strip person abated complete nan past six months.

Officially, nan Israeli subject has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians successful Gaza since October 2023, though nan existent decease toll is undoubtedly many times higher. And while a United Nations committee precocious recovered Israel’s methods of warfare successful nan Gaza Strip to beryllium “consistent pinch genocide”, nan ICC has stopped short of calling Israel retired connected this front, alternatively specifying that nan tribunal “could not find that each elements of nan crime against humanity of extermination were met”.

Of course, immoderate and each world nickname of Israel’s criminal behaviour is morally important fixed nan country’s modus operandi, according to which world rule is made to beryllium surgery – but only by Israel itself. It’s nary mishap that neither Israel nor nan United States, Israel’s superior backer and existent accomplice to genocide, are not parties to nan ICC.

Were world “justice” not wholly selective and governed by an egregious double standard, nan US would person its ain plethora of warfare crimes to reply for – for illustration nan wanton bulldoze of civilians successful Afghanistan and Iraq nether nan guise of nan alleged “war connected terror”.

Meanwhile, it’s not rather clear why nan ICC has stopped short of detecting “all elements of nan crime of against humanity of extermination” connected nan portion of Netanyahu and Gallant. After all, knowingly depriving a civilian organization of everything “indispensable to their survival” would look to beryllium a beautiful surefire measurement of ensuring, well, extermination.

It’s besides benignant of “indispensable to survival” to not beryllium bombed to decease while having your full territory pulverised. And to that end, perhaps, nan ICC has “found reasonable grounds to believe” that some Netanyahu and Gallant “each carnivore criminal work arsenic civilian superiors for nan warfare crime of intentionally directing an onslaught against nan civilian population”.

But assigning specified individual guilt is simply a specified driblet successful nan bucket of “justice”. At nan extremity of nan day, nan authorities of Israel arsenic a full bears “criminal responsibility” for usurping Palestinian onshore and engaging successful 76.5 years (and counting) of taste cleansing, displacement and massacres. All of this while driving a assemblage of nan Palestinian organization to equipped guidance and thereby converting them into targets for continued Israeli criminality.

Given Israel’s lengthy history of flouting United Nations resolutions, nan country’s presumption that it should besides beryllium immune from ICC rulings comes arsenic nary surprise. While Israel does not recognise ICC jurisdiction domestically, Netanyahu and Gallant could successful mentation beryllium arrested if they recreation to immoderate of nan court’s 124 personnel states. Needless to say, this is not an eventuality that will beryllium encouraged by nan world’s reigning superpower.

And yet this is not Israel’s first run-in pinch nan ICC. Back successful 2019, aft astir 5 years of “preliminary investigation”, nan tribunal announced that then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was “satisfied” that location was a “reasonable ground to initiate an investigation into nan business successful Palestine”.

This did not mean, of course, that said investigation was group to commence – eternal bureaucracy and foot-dragging being nan hallmark of world criminal law. Rather, it had simply been established that location was a “reasonable ground to judge that warfare crimes person been aliases are being committed successful nan West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and nan Gaza Strip”.

Well, yeah. And that “reasonable basis” had already been astir for, oh, 7 decades aliases so.

Anyway, Bensouda’s ruminations were still much than nan Israelis could handle. The Jerusalem Post, for example, ran a dispatch by Israeli lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner – titled “Refusing to Play nan Palestinians’ ICC game” – successful which nan writer accused nan tribunal of serving arsenic a “concealed weapon” against Israel.

Contending that location was “nothing sexier for Bensouda than nan Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, Darshan-Leitner concluded: “We knew that Bensouda was tired of pursuing African dictators and sadistic tribal leaders, and wanted to show that nan ICC was a tribunal pinch a genuinely world reach”.

Speaking of sexy, Al Jazeera has noted that, arsenic a consequence of Bensouda’s ongoing perceived insolence, Israeli spy main Yossi Cohen “intensified nan covert warfare connected nan tribunal that Israel has been waging since Palestine joined nan ICC successful 2015”. The Mossad went astir intercepting Bensouda’s communications, and she reported being “personally threatened”. She stepped down arsenic charismatic successful 2021, nan aforesaid twelvemonth nan “investigation into nan business successful Palestine” yet sewage nether way.

Now, it remains to beryllium seen conscionable what nan Israelis person up their sleeves successful this latest world ineligible showdown. But arsenic nan “situation successful Palestine” proceeds apace and genocide rages, there’s a reasonable ground to judge justness is not yet an option.

The views expressed successful this article are nan author’s ain and do not needfully bespeak Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.