Netanyahu denounced in a post on the
In 2021, the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into possible war crimes in Gaza targeting Israel, Hamas, and other Palestinian armed factions.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, previously announced that the investigation has now “expanded to include the escalation in hostilities and violence since the attacks that occurred on October 7, 2023.”
The International Criminal Court, which was established in 2002, is the only independent court in the world established to investigate the most serious crimes, including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
What will happen if the ICC charges Netanyahu with war crimes?
• In a report by the British newspaper The Guardian, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan will take some time to complete the detailed investigation required to prove possible Israeli war crimes, such as indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas and shooting at military targets with undesirable civilian consequences. Proportionate, because the Israeli government refused to allow court staff to enter Gaza.
• The facts regarding Israel's obstruction of humanitarian aid are readily available to the International Court.
• For most of the war, Israel allowed enough food into Gaza to avoid widespread death, but not enough to prevent widespread hunger, according to USAID Administrator Samantha Power.
• Just as Khan initially accused Russia of kidnapping Ukrainian children, and only later began to address Russia's actually more complex bombing campaign that began with attacks on electrical infrastructure, Khan is also likely to begin with direct accusations in Gaza before moving on to more complex ones. .
• There is no doubt that Khan will also handle the file of senior Hamas officials in the military chain of command, as the killing and kidnapping of Israeli civilians on October 7 constitute war crimes. The basic premise of international humanitarian law is that war crimes committed by either party never justify war crimes. committed by the other party, and the duty to comply is absolute and not mutual.
• The ICC charges will have nothing to do with Israel's right to self-defense, but will instead focus on the way the Netanyahu government has chosen to implement this defense, not only by targeting Hamas, but also committing war crimes against civilians.
• The Israeli government may argue that Israel has a well-developed legal system and can prosecute its own war criminals. Under what is known as the principle of complementarity, the International Criminal Court is supposed to acquiesce to national justice efforts, but Israel has no history of prosecuting senior officials for war crimes, and no case has been filed related to Netanyahu’s starvation strategy in Gaza, according to “The Guardian.” .
• The Israeli government may claim that because it has not joined the ICC, it should not prosecute Israeli officials, but the Rome Statute that established the court gives it jurisdiction not only over citizens of governments that have joined the court, but also over crimes committed on the territories of its members . This is logical because addressing crimes committed on the territory of a country is an essential feature of sovereignty, noting that Palestine joined the court and granted it jurisdiction over crimes committed in its occupied territories (the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza).
• Any effort by the United States to interfere in the trial, such as invoking the American Military Servicemembers Protection Act, which even authorizes military action to protect US allies from prosecution by the International Criminal Court, would likely lead to protests in America and jeopardize Joe's re-election chances. Biden is at risk.
• The Israeli government will not extradite Netanyahu or officials for trial, but their travel will be limited.
• The first round of accusations will be an implicit threat of more. As Netanyahu contemplates a possible invasion of Rafah, he must be concerned about whether more civilian deaths would prompt Khan to step up investigations into indiscriminate and disproportionate Israeli attacks on civilians.
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