The Gaza War|According to experts, it is almost certain that the International Criminal Court will end up issuing the arrest warrants that the prosecutor has demanded for the leaders of Israel and Hamas.
International applying for an arrest warrant for members of Israel’s political leadership is significant but not surprising, says the academic, professor emeritus of international law at the University of Helsinki Martti Koskenniemi.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced this week that he is seeking an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin to Netanyahu and the Minister of Defense To Yoav Gallant and to three leading figures of the extremist organization Hamas.
“It would have been hard to imagine that the prosecutor’s office would not have made such a decision. It is a legal consideration, not a political expediency decision,” says Koskenniemi.
The war in Gaza, which started with the attack of Hamas in October, is already going on for the eighth month.
“The war has killed a huge number of civilians compared to any other conflict of the 21st century. The fact that the prosecuting authority would have remained passive in such a case would have been completely contrary to the aspirations on which the establishment of the International Criminal Court was based,” says Koskenniemi.
The decision to issue an arrest warrant is made by a panel of judges. Koskenniemi and senior researcher at the Institute of Foreign Policy Timo R. Stewart are quite certain that an arrest warrant will be issued.
“I don’t see what would be a new aspect of the reasoning that would give the panel of judges a reason to decide in a different way than what the prosecutor presents,” says Koskenniemi.
With arrest warrants would have a great symbolic meaning, according to experts. Stewart says that, in part, the action could deepen Israel’s international isolation.
Concretely, it would follow from arrest warrants that the movement of people under them would be restricted, as they would face the threat of arrest in ICC member countries.
However, according to Stewart, there are also cases where a person subject to an arrest warrant has visited a country that is a party to the ICC, but has not been arrested.
The parties to the agreement do not include, for example, the United States, so Netanyahu and Gallant would still be able to travel to their allied country as before.
According to the ICC prosecutor, there are grounds to believe that the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel and the leaders of Hamas have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Stewart says this may also affect countries that sell weapons to Israel.
“Countries have to take into account that they do not become guilty of providing aid to war crimes or crimes against humanity.”
Stewart estimates that the arrest warrants would hardly have any effect on Hamas’s ability to operate, because in the eyes of the international community it is widely already an illegitimate terrorist organization. The researcher does not believe that the ICC’s actions have an impact on either side’s warfare.
Stewart does not consider the chances of bringing Netanyahu and Gallant or Hamas leaders to The Hague before the court very high.
According to Stewart, the political leader of Hamas could most likely face trial Ismail Haniyya, but that doesn’t seem very likely at the moment either. Haniyya resides in Qatar and Turkey, which are not parties to the ICC.
#Gaza #War #Arrest #warrants #Israels #leadership #reflected #arms #deals #researcher #estimates
