Analysis
‘Historic breakthrough for justice’ as countries pledge to enforce arrest warrant for Netanyahu
For the first time in 22 years, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Western leaders. HRW: 'The ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break through the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law.'
There is still justice in the world, at The Hague. No matter what comes next, the three judges have made history: for the first time in 22 years, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Western leaders, part of that group of countries that insist on calling themselves liberal democracies even when the highest court on the planet – the International Court of Justice – points out that one is actually an apartheid regime.
The two leaders are Benyamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving Prime Minister, and Yoav Gallant, his former Defense Minister whom he unceremoniously fired just two weeks ago, but with whom he shares many things: an indictment at The Hague for genocide and now the official “title” of wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Tell the world that there are no institutions here, no tools, nothing to work with. No one is listening,” a desperate Palestinian rescuer shouted on Al Jazeera on Wednesday evening. In front of him was a decapitated body he could not pull out from under the rubble in Sheikh Radwan, a Gaza City neighborhood where the Israeli air force leveled a five-story building two nights ago. It belonged to the Al-Arouqi family and housed displaced people. Twenty-two were killed.
But someone had been listening. It took time – too long, and much longer than usual: six months from the request filed by Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and the top Hamas leaders, Ismail Haniyeh, Yaya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif.
A lot happened in between: the extrajudicial killing of Haniyeh, blown up in Tehran in late July; the killing of Sinwar in battle a month ago; a barrage of behind-the-scenes threats and public pressure on the court from half the West; and briefs filed in favor of the defense from states allied with Tel Aviv that questioned the court's jurisdiction.
The judges responded to all of them on Thursday, at the same time as issuing the arrest warrants: the court can indeed act because it has jurisdiction over Palestine, which is an adherent to the Rome Statute. Although sealed, the court has made the warrants public because it is “in the interest of victims and their families that they are made aware of the warrants’ existence.” This aims to provide something like relief, justice, or at least an impression of it.
In the decision released late Thursday morning, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the Court says it holds Netanyahu and Gallant “co-perpetrators” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts” and “the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population,” on a political and national basis. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant have “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024.”
The three judges mentioned the cutting off of electricity, water and gas and the shortage of incoming food and medical aid, which have rendered hospitals incapable of saving lives, forcing them to operate and amputate limbs without anesthetics, inflicting inhumane suffering.
Then, they also stand accused of “the crime against humanity of extermination,” reminiscent of the vocabulary used in the Convention Against Genocide, for which a case has been pending at the International Court since January: there are “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies, created conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza.”
Deif, the commander of the al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza – whom Israel claims it killed in July, but whom the court deems to be still alive in the absence of clear evidence – is wanted for the war crimes of murder for the Oct. 7, 2023 mass killings (1,100 Israelis killed) and kidnapping (250 hostages) and the crime against humanity of extermination.
Now, after 44,000 Palestinians (and certainly many more) are dead, the 124 countries that are signatories to the Rome Statute are responsible for acting as the enforcement arm of a court that has no police force of its own: if Netanyahu, Gallant or Deif set foot in their territories, they are required to arrest them and hand them over to The Hague.
Throughout the day on Thursday, this is what the international reactions focused on, either with crystal-clear statements of intent (Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium are ready to proceed with the arrests) or with equally crystal-clear stands, such as that of outgoing EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, who said “the decision is a binding decision” and called on all EU member states to implement it. This includes Italy as well: on Thursday evening, Defense Minister Crosetto said the court decision was “wrong” but pledged to proceed with the arrests in compliance with international law.
From others, there were awkward statements that danced around the issue: France saying that it intended to act “in line with the ICC’s statutes,” but that it was a “legally complex” issue whether it would actually proceed with the arrests, and the U.K. saying it “respects the independence of the ICC” but also Israel's right to defend itself, with no confirmation of whether it would execute the warrants. There was no such ambivalence coming from the most prominent human rights organizations that have been fighting in recent years to get the long-standing crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people recognized.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnés Callamard said the arrest warrants “represent a historic breakthrough for justice and must signal the beginning of the end of the persistent and pervasive impunity at the heart of the human rights crisis in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Prime Minister Netanyahu is now officially a wanted man.”
Human Rights Watch said: “The ICC arrest warrants against senior Israeli leaders and a Hamas official break through the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law.”
And the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (B'Tselem) said: “Personal accountability for decision-makers is a key element in the struggle for justice and freedom for all human beings living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/ora-netanyahu-e-ufficialmente-un-ricercato on 2024-11-22