Pro Palestine procession in Milan
EU broken on the arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Countries divided on the recognition of the Palestinian state
The decision to seek arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel and Hamas has exposed all the hypocrisies of the West, digging a further chasm between public opinion and the governmental political apparatus of the United States and the European Union, within which a fault opened up that split it in two: on the one hand the states favorable to Khan’s request , on the other those who oppose it and are preparing to sabotage it.
Khan’s choice triggered a controversial debate, polarized mostly on the meaning and the very right of existence of justice bodies such as those in The Hague. And he exposed all the contradictions and ambiguities of the West. The most obvious is the use of the proven logic of “double standards”. Based on this criterion, for example, President Biden and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a prominent representative of the American Jewish community, hastened to declare that the decision of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to request warrants for the leaders of both parties in the conflict, equating them, “It’s shameful”. Biden then clarified, referring to another ongoing proceeding, the one at the International Court of Justice opened after South Africa’s complaint against Israel, that “the Israeli military operation in Gaza is not a genocide”, adding that the one perpetrated by Hamas is the “worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and still holds dozens of innocent people, including American citizens, hostage.”
These brief statements would be enough to understand how much the pathological syndrome of repression and denial of reality has spread to the highest levels of Western Democracies. However, you don’t pay, perhaps also pushed by the extremist and reactionary wing of Congress, and by senators animated by messianic fury who send threatening letters as if they were Christmas cards, the United States has thrown its heart over the obstacle and through the mouth of Blinken announced, during a stormy and dramatic press conference, that “the White House is open to evaluating with Republicans in Congress the possibility of imposing sanctions on the Court or its prosecutor”. A statement that triggered a real wave of indignation and protest among some of those present who, with their hands covered in red paint, openly accused him of being a “war criminal”, adding that “his only legacy in history will be that of having been one of the supporters of the Palestinian genocide”. Many of them, shouting “Shame on you, shame on you”, were dragged away from the courtroom, handcuffed and arrested, as can be seen in some videos that have gone viral on Instagram.
There is no doubt that this is a crucial historical moment and that Khan’s choice represents a test of the world order and of the very concept of Democracy. In Europe and neighboring countries, it has caused a fracture with far from predictable outcomes. Italy, as expected, immediately aligned itself with the US position. “We do not agree with the choice of the prosecutor of the Hague Court,” Foreign Minister Antonio said yesterday Tajaniwho added that “You cannot equate a democratic country, with a democratically elected government, with a terrorist organization.”
Against all expectations and predictions, however, France declared that he supported “the ICC and its fight against impunity”, even if during the proceedings, under pressure from the Council of Jewish Institutions beyond the Alps (Crif), he had to adjust his aim by specifying that “the simultaneous requests of arrest warrants must not create any equivalence between Hamas and Israel.” The French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné then explained that on the one hand there is “a terrorist group that celebrated the attacks of 7 October and claimed responsibility for them”, on the other “a democratic state, Israel”, which however ” must respect international law in the conduct of a war it did not want.” Aligned with the American and Israeli positions is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak who defined the arrest warrants as “profoundly useless” and added that this choice “only compromises the negotiations for a truce and the release of the Israeli hostages still in the hands of Hamas”. However, the position of the Norwegian kingdom is different, which has announced that on May 28th it will join Spain and Ireland and recognize the Palestinian state. Through his Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide, he also made it known that “Oslo will arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues a warrant against the prime minister”, in the event that the latter were to “enter Norway ”.
From the Far East, Beijing hopes that “the Court will maintain an objective and impartial position and exercise its powers in accordance with the law”. And Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin calls for an end to the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” While from Moscow comes the obvious and obvious underlining of the “double standard” and the “curious attitude” of the United States towards the ICC, “which just over a year ago issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin with the applause from Washington.” Meanwhile, within the European Union, another earthquake is underway. It is what sees a group of nations united in defense of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. The European Palestinian front is led by Ireland and Spain which, as scheduled, together with Norway, today announced that they officially recognize the State of Palestine. The choice, which will be formalized on May 28th, is also shared by the republics of Slovenia and Malta who will soon recognize it in turn. Within the EU, until today, only the states of the former Soviet bloc – Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary – recognized it, together with Cyprus, which did so in 2011, and the United of Sweden in 2014.
Meanwhile, in Gaza and the West Bank, the Israeli industrial machine continues its ethnic cleansing undisturbed. To date, almost 8 months after 7 October, the number of civilians killed, injured and missing has now exceeded 130,000 people. About 18,000 per month, 600 per day, 24 per hour, 2.5 per minute.
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