Opinion: the International Criminal Court's threat to Netanyahu

To a gallery of offenders that included the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may soon be added as prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) seek a warrant for his arrest. prison for him.

The ICC is a criminal court that prosecutes individuals, as did the Nuremberg trials after World War II.

Created in 2002, the ICC has obtained just 10 convictions for war crimes. Although the wheels of ICC justice turn slowly, they do.

The decision to impeach Netanyahu has the potential to greatly alter the course of the war in Gaza.

This development is far more significant for Netanyahu personally than the allegations of genocide against Israel in the case brought by South Africa in December to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which considers cases against countries.

An interim ruling by that court concluded that Palestinians have “plausible” rights to protection against genocide, Joan Donoghue, then president of the ICJ at the time of the ruling, told the BBC.

Israel has vehemently denied that it is committing genocide in Gaza in the ongoing case.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan told anchor Christiane Amanpour of CNN that the court's charges against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant include “causing extermination, causing famine as a method of warfare, including denying humanitarian aid supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”

In response, Netanyahu criticized Khan as one of the “great anti-Semites of modern times.”

The ICC is also simultaneously seeking arrest warrants for three high-ranking Hamas leaders, but in practice this will not have much effect on the Islamic group which is already designated a terrorist organization by many countries including the United States and member states of the Union. European.

Meanwhile, one of Hamas' leaders, Yahya Sinwar, whom Israel accused of masterminding the October 7 attack on the Jewish state, is believed to be hiding in the tunnels beneath Gaza.

There are 124 countries that have signed the ICC, which does not include the United States or Israel. These 124 countries would have a duty to arrest Netanyahu if the court issued an arrest warrant for him.

A panel of ICC judges will rule on Khan's request for arrest warrants.

Many of Israel's closest allies, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, are parties to the ICC and would be bound by the court's decision if a warrant were issued.

This would greatly complicate his relations with Netanyahu, as he would effectively become an international pariah who could not travel to most countries.

France and Belgium have already issued statements in support of the ICC's requests for Netanyahu's arrest warrant.

If approved, the arrest warrant against Netanyahu would place Israel, a sovereign state that acts in self-defense – despite killing more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health – on the same level as Hamas, the terrorist group that instigated the war with the October 7 attacks on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people.

In the United States, there has been predictable resistance to the ICC's move to try to issue an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell fulminated:

“The ICC has only succeeded in further discrediting itself as a dishonest kangaroo court completely disconnected from morality or justice,” while US President Joe Biden said the request for an arrest warrant against Netanyahu was “outrageous.”

But you can't have it both ways. When the ICC and its top prosecutor, Khan, issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine in 2023, there was applause on both sides of the aisle.

Biden declared that the ICC arrest warrant for Putin “makes a very strong point,” adding that “he clearly committed war crimes.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina praised the court's decision, saying: “The ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin is a giant step in the right direction for the international community. It is more than justified by the evidence.”

One of the effects of the possible arrest warrant for Netanyahu is that the Israeli public may become more aware of what is happening in Gaza.

Due to the self-censorship exercised by Israeli media, Israelis are witnessing a very different war than the rest of the world.

Israeli media rarely show images of the large-scale destruction and many thousands of civilian casualties in Gaza, according to a report published this month in The Wall Street Journal.

The ICC's possible arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders could also complicate the already thorny issue of negotiations for the return of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a ceasefire.

I'm attending a security conference in Qatar, the Global Security Forum.

As is well known, Qatar has played a crucial mediating role between the United States, Israel and the Qatar-based Hamas political leadership to free the 100 or more hostages still held captive in Gaza, including eight Americans, along with the bodies of about 30 more.

The consensus among delegates at the conference, which includes security experts from around the world, is that these negotiations are largely at a standstill.

The ICC's decision to seek an arrest warrant for Netanyahu can only strengthen its resolve to continue the war in Gaza seemingly indefinitely.

In a speech to his nation on Monday (20), Netanyahu said the ICC would not prevent Israel from achieving “total victory” against Hamas in a translation of his remarks by The Times of Israel.

*Editor's note: Peter Bergen is a CNN national security analyst, vice president of New America, professor of practice at Arizona State University and host of the podcast “In the Room With Peter Bergen” on Audible, Apple and Spotify. The opinions expressed in this article are his own.

Source: CNN Brasil

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