Democratic Nations Must Challenge ICC’s Legal Distortions for Israel’s and Their Own Sake

April 30, 2024

by: Col. Richard Kemp, Rafael Beradaji ~ Ynet

Tuesday, 30 April 2024 | Is the International Criminal Court [ICC] about to issue arrest warrants for top-level Israeli political and military leaders? That is certainly the view of some legal professionals in the court’s Hague ecosystem—and perhaps as early as this week. Any indictment for international crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction cannot possibly be made with a solid legal basis in wartime.

The court has not been able to carry out any investigations on the ground in Gaza and will not be able to do so for perhaps many months. That means any such move would be politically motivated, intended to undermine Israel’s ability to defend its citizens from terrorist violence.

Given the region’s high stakes and the US’s direct involvement in the conflict, it is inconceivable that ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan would issue indictments without the approval and maybe even the active encouragement of the White House.

“We’ve been really clear about the ICC investigation, that we don’t support it, we don’t believe that they have the jurisdiction,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing.

With the presidential election approaching and a desire to gain votes from both supporters and opponents of Israel, Biden has been trying for months to restrain Jerusalem’s legitimate self-defense while at the same time backing its war effort. That amounts to disgraceful duplicity at a time when America’s closest ally in the Middle East needs full-throated support.

Members of Biden’s administration and his political allies have also shown extraordinary hostility to the democratically-elected prime minister of one of America’s closest allies, going back well before this war began. What better way now of heaping pressure on Israel and trying to drag down its prime minister than having the ICC-level charges at Netanyahu directly as well as his defense minister and military chief of staff?

Just the threat of such a highly dangerous move also opens up other duplicitous opportunities for Biden to coerce Israel. He can perhaps agree to call off the ICC dogs in exchange for concessions from Jerusalem, such as holding back from Rafah, some prolonged cease-fire or undertakings over the looming battle against Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

If the ICC does go ahead with its planned indictments, it will be playing right into the hands of Iran and Hamas. In fact, this kangaroo court would be doing their dirty work under the cynical guise of what it laughably calls “justice.” Many believe that Hamas’s invasion on October 7 was intended by Tehran to derail normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia which at the time seemed imminent.

It doesn’t look like the war itself will achieve that, but international criminal charges against Israeli leaders might well scare the Saudis off. That would be hugely damaging to regional stability prospects and further embolden Iran. As Hamas prepares to fight from its final stronghold in Rafah, its only chance of survival as a military threat to Israel and the governing authority in the Gaza Strip is for the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] to be forced to end the war.

That isn’t going to happen because the Israeli government has an absolute duty to defend its citizens against Hamas’s aggression. But ICC indictments would certainly encourage Hamas to keep fighting. In short, the ICC and its clandestine sponsors in the White House would reduce the prospects of wider peace in the Middle East, contribute to prolonging the Gaza conflict and lessen the prospects for the release of Hamas’s hostages.

There are also wider implications. Whatever the actual charges being brought by the ICC, whether relating to civilian deaths or humanitarian aid or both, they would validate Hamas’s strategy of using civilians as weapons of war. This is intended to directly prevent the IDF from dealing effectively with terrorists embedded in the civilian population by provoking international outrage.

The same principle applies to Hamas’s hijacking of humanitarian aid to both strengthen its own fighters and increase civilian suffering. We have seen the effects of these murderous stratagems in international bodies like the UN and International Court of Justice [ICJ] on university campuses and the streets of our cities.

The previous US administration sought to protect its own citizens and citizens of allied countries from perverse ICC investigations by enabling sanctions against court officials. In his efforts to appease the ICC, the relevant Executive Order was rescinded by Joe Biden. That amounts to nothing less than the shameful betrayal of American leaders and soldiers as well as their allies.

If the ICC goes ahead with its planned indictments, the US should restore such protection for Israel, which, like America, is not a state party to the ICC’s foundational Rome Statute. However, with the likelihood that the White House has its fingerprints all over this plan, that will only happen through concerted domestic political pressure, which is needed urgently.

Now is the time for all democratic governments, in their own interests as well as Israel’s, to stand up to this legal perversion, which threatens to do untold damage to global security.

Posted on April 30, 2024

Source: (Excerpt of an article originally published by Ynetnews on April 29, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

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