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Written by Uriel Araujo, researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts
Israel will pay 120,000 shekels ($32,000) in legal fees to lawyers after the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested arrest warrants against both Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. Khan has also applied for warrants against the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar, as well as Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Deif, the organization’s military commander.
The Israeli officials are being charged with various war crimes and crimes against humanity, including employing the starvation of civilians as a warfare method. US President Joe Biden has described this decision as “outrageous”. In this, the ICC, also known as the Hague court, went one step further than the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which thus far has ruled that Israel should halt its military campaign against civilians in Rafah and has issued various injunctions in the same spirit. Netanyahu in turn has behaved in a manner that can only be described as arrogant and non-transparent, by showing contempt to all such requests. It is a diplomatic and political disaster that has also turned into further legal problems.
Netanyahu has recently dissolved his powerful war cabinet a few days after Benny Gantz, a key member of that body, presented his resignation. The cabinet, which directed the conflict in Gaza, has been under a lot of scrutiny over its alleged intentional attacks on civilians (thus causing an unprecedented high number of civilian casualties) amid a major humanitarian crisis which many have described as a genocide campaign.
Dorit Beinisch, retired jurist and former President of the Supreme Court of Israel, claimed this week, while giving a talk at a Reichman University conference, that the incumbent Israeli government has weakened the independence of the country’s judiciary to the extent of provoking both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) into coming after Israel for war crimes. According to her, the “ongoing judicial overhaul” has led jurists internationally to doubt the Israeli legal system’s independence and trustworthiness. This, she reasons, may have indirectly weighed as a factor in their decision to go after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Both the ICJ and the ICC claim that the country’s war cabinet is acting without oversight. Netanyahu opposes any such state inquiry for he fears that could undermine his ability to act as Prime Minister.
As I wrote before, the Israeli Prime Minister’s presumed personal and political interests in the perpetuation of the ongoing military occupation of Palestine has been raised by various analysts. Marc Champion, for instance, writing for Bloomberg, stressed the fact that Netanyahu is “fighting corruption charges in court” (it goes without saying that it is indeed usually trickier to investigate incumbent leaders). Moreover, he is expected to “face a political reckoning over Oct. 7’s security failures as soon as the war in Gaza ends.” Therefore, writes Champion, “under cover of the country’s blinding rage and deep yearning for long-term security, Netanyahu is fighting to secure his own political survival.” Private as well as business interests (even involving shady deals in some cases) do shape, to some degree, foreign policy decisions, as one can clearly see also in the case of Ukraine.
Considering the unprecedented extent of the humanitarian crisis in Palestine, what should strike any concerned observer is the blatant double standard with regards to nations involved in military campaigns.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s controversial indictment last year was indeed applauded by the American establishment. Even before it was issued, in 2022, S.Res.546, a bipartisan, unanimous resolution by the US Senate (which was agreed to without amendment) supported the ICC. It was a remarkable development, considering that the US Congress in 2002 passed into law the American Service members Protection Act, better known as the “Hague Invasion Act”. It authorized the use of military force to “liberate” any American citizen being held by the ICC. More recently, former President Donald Trump okayed sanctions to retaliate against an ICC investigation into American war crimes in Afghanistan. Washington even threatened to arrest the court’s judges over this.
On the ICC’s decision on Putin last year, US President Joe Biden also applauded it and said that the warrant “makes a very strong point.” The more recent application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, in contrast, is, in Biden’s words, “outrageous.” Moreover, on June 4, the US House of Representatives passed a bill to impose sanctions against the ICC. Although condemning the ICC’s ruling and having initially said the contrary, Biden has now announced he won’t go so far as to support sanctions against the court. Netanyahu responded by saying he is “ surprised and disappointed.”
It remains to be seen how the Biden administration will deal with the matter – and how the coming presidential elections will change things if at all. In any case, as I wrote before, it is increasingly clear that Washington is always ready to hypocritically applaud the Hague court, as long as it only persecutes its geopolitical rivals (or African leaders) and never dares to point its finger to any US war criminal – if so, Washington will be willing to literally threaten the court and its judges with invasion and arrest.
Last week Washington in fact lifted a ban on training and supplying weapons to the infamous Azov regiment, whose links to neo-Nazism and extremism are well known. This may seem unrelated, but it is in fact yet another instance of the same cynical disregard for human rights or any coherence. Much is talked about the economic and geopolitical decline of the American superpower. The erosion of its supposed moral authority, however, is also a very concrete phenomenon, with implications for soft power, and credibility – and may even have weighed as a factor in the rising Global South trend towards non-alignment. The stubborn American support for the Jewish state’s disastrous campaign lies at the root of several international crises today, including the Houthi imbroglio at the Red Sea.
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“western” hypocrisy?… how ’bout “eastern” hypocrisy with china, russia and india’s involvement being part of the un and the problem that isn’t sanctioning i$rael either?
whilst all valid criticism. one has to note russian silence on the jewish question under putin. it is very telling that putin can criticise the us in all things but israel can cause the shoot down of russian aircraft and crickets….
bibi is a jewish version of adoph eichman the palestinians now have the legal right to hunt him down and put him on trial as the jews did to eichman.
not only netanyahu, iran, with good reason, should issue a fatwa on netayahu with him being delivered to tehran for further dealings. a 10million $ fatwa in gold will sure as a clucking bell ascertain his early arrival in tehran, all trussed up!
when does russia deliver charismatic leadership to it’s citizens and the world by leaving the un wh0reh0u$e and starting it’s own un in moscow to build a briics house where all will share and promote the same rules equitably? as long as russia stays they are the bigger part of the problem and represent the worst contradiction!
russias and chinas veto is the only thing preventing the usa and the west using the un to legalise all their crimes and make themselves the oficial ruler of the world.
k with that being said… but why does russia still sell it’s energy to the eu and u.$. after 10 years of cross border aggression from nato on it’s doorstep, and destruction of it’s refineries and nordstream pipeline when it isn’t killing eastern ukrainians and russians?… it’s not only absurd but insane.
what are all this organizations icc and all united nations and all their organisms and dependencies? what are they? they are just tables where world powers sits instead of fight wars, where they discuss how can work together instead of fight each other, there is no more than that… justice? can a westerner understand what is justice? the worst system, the corruption of everything, western world is based and built over lies after lies… and cattle, plenty of human cattle and their masters
if anybody truly believes we are on the verge of the new world order being downsized and “dismantled” with the mantra from the likes of sergey lavrov for the last 10 years claiming that russia is at the front of creating a multipolar world order are sadly mistaken as it is a lie.
this only will happen when russia removes itself from the corporate corruption at the u.$./un and declares a new un being erected in moscow. we know china and india will never lead it because they like it just the way it “is” along with their second homes in north america and eu!
your problem is, you think a huge tanker or cargo ship is a speedboat and can be turned on a dime. they already tried that in the port of baltimore. captain any relation?
hardly a lie, just not an overnight affair. are you a hasbarat?
so i’m a “hasbroo for calling out russia that still remains part of a club hq’d at 405 east 42nd street, new york, ny, 10017, usa that continues to do business with that “organ” that at the same time is trying to destroy it?!!!… if anything you are “fifth column” stooge working overtime for the money as this collective $h&t;t $how meets it’s great reward!… like the line in the movie “unforgiven” “we all got what is comin to us! more of everything!
russia’s trying to destroy the un? well, i’ll be. maybe they’re not so bad after all.
we wish that were true!
the masters just now disagree with netanyahu, and why? netanyahu since decades ago was one of their biggest players of the western empire expansion in the middle east, now they will use netanyahu as a scapegoat. the masters of the universe wanted to pretend most of them were not jews also, they will scapegoat one of their own to follow their agenda and tell the human cattle that netanyahu is the bad guy, and created all this nonsense approving the self inflicted terrorist attack.
“western hypocrisy” is a never-ending highlight. it’s built into the system.
lock him up! and melt the key and weld the cage.
these are the people who orchestrated the holocaust lie, and exterminated hundreds of thousands of their own community at the lowest levels of the social caste and economic pyramid, to prevent a burden on the coming state of israel, and have weaponised that propaganda ever since
judging how many countries have used their own military assets and money to defend isreal from the iranian missile and drone attacks and the continuing attacks of the huthis / ansar allah on israel linked ships it should be clear that no matter what world order we might have. israel will allways have special rights.