The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued the arrest warrants requested in May by the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes.
“This is the day I have dreamed of so much. As a romantic revolutionary lawyer, I believed in the rule of law and the dignity of man. We will hold Israeli criminals to account as they deserve,” Raji Sourani, Palestinian lawyer and one of the main promoters of the case at the International Criminal Court, tells elDiario.es. Over the years, Sourani has met with Khan on several occasions and reproaches the Court for not acting sooner.
The arrest warrants are classified as “secret,” however, the court has made part of the information public because “it appears that conduct similar to that contemplated in the arrest warrant is being carried out.” says the International Criminal Court in a statement. “In addition, the court considers that it is in the interest of the victims and their families that they are informed of the existence of the arrest warrants.”
“With respect to the crimes, the chamber has found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhuman acts,” the statement said.
Netanyahu has called the accusations against him “absurd and false” and has rejected the order issued by the ICC. “The ICC’s anti-Semitic decision is equivalent to the modern Dreyfus trial, and it will also end that way,” he said.
The judges also believe that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that both Israeli political leaders have “criminal responsibility” as civilian superiors for the war crime of “directly and deliberately attacking the civilian population.”
The court considers that there are also reasonable grounds to believe that both “knowingly and intentionally denied the civilian population of Gaza elements essential for their survival, including food, water and medical supplies.” The court’s statement maintains that when this humanitarian assistance occurred “it was a response to pressure from the international community or requests from the United States,” not to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.
The judges consider that this strategy “created living conditions designed to wipe out part of the civilian population and resulted in the death of civilians, including children, due to malnutrition and dehydration.”
“The court has not been able to determine that all the elements of the crime against humanity of extermination were met. However, it has determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the crime against humanity of murder was committed,” says the ICC, which recalls that the lack of medical supplies “forced doctors to operate on people and carry out amputations.” , including in children, without anesthesia.”
The Court justifies the “crime of persecution” by arguing that “the population was attacked based on political and/or national reasons.”
More than 44,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since October 2023 and thousands are under the rubble, according to local authorities, who denounce that Israel attacks homes and buildings where the displaced are sheltered, as well as tent camps in those who have relocated.
The Pre-Trial Chamber has also unanimously rejected challenges brought in September by Israel, which denied the ICC’s jurisdiction over the situation in the State of Palestine in general, and over Israeli citizens in particular.
On January 1, 2015, the State of Palestine accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC for events that occurred since June 2014 and in March 2021 the prosecutor finally announced the opening of an investigation.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has criticized the decisioncalling her a “universal laughing stock.” “The decision has chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom, and has turned the justice system itself into a human shield for Hamas’ crimes against humanity,” maintains the president.
For his part, the Minister of National Security, the far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir, has also referred to the court’s announcement, proposing an illegal annexation of all Palestinian territory: “The response to the arrest warrants: apply sovereignty over all the Judea and Samaria areas [Cisjordania] and Jewish settlements throughout the territory.”
The EU high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, recalled that this ICC decision is “binding on all States party to the treaty, including all EU members.”
#International #Criminal #Court #issues #arrest #warrant #Netanyahu #war #crimes
