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ICC arrest warrants put international law to test: WaPo

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Washington Post
22 May 2024 14:48
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The ICC's decision is a landmark decision for the court that has usually issued warrants for non-Western leaders and rarely for those backed by the West.

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Exterior view of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, April 30, 2024 (AP)

The International Criminal Court's decision to file for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Security Minister Yoav Gallant has rocked the world for the past two days, leaving them liable for arrest in the 124 member countries of the ICC.

This was a landmark decision for the court that has usually issued warrants for non-Western leaders and rarely for those backed by the West.

Shortly after ICC chief Karim Khan announced the decision, the Biden administration did not spare any time in announcing it would support Congress' decision to apply sanctions against the ICC to protect US interests and support allies like "Israel". This echoes a 2020 event when the former Trump administration filed for sanctions on two officials of the court, including its chief prosecutor at the time, for looking to prosecute US military and intelligence personnel involved in abuses in Afghanistan.

On Monday, Biden denounced the ICC decision and said that what was happening in Gaza "was not genocide." However, nations, including France and Germany, issued statements supporting the ICC's independence while others like Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland were more emphatic in their support.

Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide announced that should the ICC issue warrants, Norway will have to arrest Gallant and Netanyahu if they visit the country.

Khan stated that it was only right for the ICC to announce its actions against "Israel" given that those inside "Israel" weren't taking action to prosecute Netanyahu and Gallant.

"If we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as being applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions for its collapse," Khan said, adding, "In doing so, we will be loosening the remaining bonds that hold us together, the stabilizing connections between all communities and individuals, the safety net to which all victims look in times of suffering. This is the true risk we face in this moment."

70 years down the drain

Senator Lindsey Graham, a senior Republican figure known for his strong stance on international affairs, pledged to lead the charge in Congress. "I will feverishly work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both chambers to levy damning sanctions against the ICC," Graham said.

Graham voiced his hope to work with the administration to express strong opposition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor's actions, advocating for sanctions against the ICC to protect US interests and support allies like "Israel". He remarked, "If they do this to Israel, we are next," adding that "They tried to come after our soldiers in Afghanistan but reason prevailed."

David Scheffer, who represented the US at the 1998 conference in Rome that led to the ICC’s creation, relayed to The Wall Street Journal, "For the ICC there may be a risk, but at the end of the day what is the ICC supposed to do?... Israel here has a rightful exercise of self-defense, a just war."

"The issue is how do you conduct that just war. Prosecutor Khan is being presented with a scale of atrocity in warfare that is somewhat unprecedented for the ICC prosecutor to be confronted with."

Dov Waxman, a professor of "Israel" studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, noted, "This is not about drawing a moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel," adding, "It is about upholding international law and holding decision-makers accountable."

Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, released a statement calling the decision "a long-awaited opportunity to end the decades-long cycle of impunity... and to restore the credibility of the international justice system as a whole."

Meanwhile, Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the US-based Center for International Policy, told Time magazine, "We are at a pivotal moment for the rules-based international order that the United States tried to build for 70 years."

"The question much of the world is asking is do the laws and processes the United States built apply to everyone equally, or are the United States and its friends exempt?"