U.S. rejects ICC plans to seek arrest warrants for Israel PM, DM
Hague prosecutor says his office has gathered evidence that Hamas leaders committed war crimes, and that Israeli leaders used starvation as a method of warfare.
President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken today “fundamentally rejected” the announced plans by the International Criminal Court prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister and defense minister, as well as three top Hamas officials, calling any suggestion of moral equivalence between Hamas and the Israeli leadership “outrageous.” But the U.S. official expressions of outrage were also seemingly intended to try to head off potential Israeli overreaction to the move.
“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” Biden said in a statement. “And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence—none—between Israel and Hamas.”
“We reject the Prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas,” Blinken said in a statement today. “It is shameful.”
State Department officials have repeatedly said that they do not believe that the ICC has jurisdiction over Gaza, because Israel is not a signatory to the ICC, and the Palestinian Authority, which applied to become a member of the Court in 2015, is not a state. (Many other international law experts disagree with the U.S. legal judgment here. And in February 2021, the ICC’s “Pre-Tribal Chamber I concluded that the Court’s territorial jurisdiction ‘extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,’” Just Security reported in a piece today.)
“We can expect this to be challenged in upcoming proceedings,” Tom Dannenbaum, an international law professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, wrote in another piece at Just Security today. “But, with a large and growing majority of U.N. member states recognizing Palestinian statehood, that challenge is unlikely to succeed.”
State Department officials also raised questions about why ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan and his staff allegedly made plans to travel to Israel this month, to discuss their investigation with Israeli officials, then abruptly canceled the plans today, before Khan gave an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour to announce his intention to seek arrest warrants.
“Despite not being a member of the court, Israel was prepared to cooperate with the Prosecutor,” Blinken said in his statement. “In fact, the Prosecutor himself was scheduled to visit Israel as early as next week to discuss the investigation and hear from the Israeli Government.
“The Prosecutor’s staff was supposed to land in Israel today to coordinate the visit,” Blinken’s statement continued. “Israel was informed that they did not board their flight around the same time that the Prosecutor went on cable television to announce the charges. These and other circumstances call into question the legitimacy and credibility of the investigation.”
Khan seeks arrest warrants for Hamas leaders for war crimes, including murder, extermination, hostage taking, rape, and torture
Khan, in a lengthy statement today, said his office has reasonable grounds to believe that three top Hamas leaders--Yahya Sinwar; Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau; and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (aka Deif), commander in chief of Hamas’ military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades--bear criminal responsibility for a list of crimes that include extermination as a crime against humanity; murder as a crime against humanity; taking hostages as a war crime; rape and other acts of sexual violence; torture and cruel treatment.
“My Office submits that there are reasonable grounds to believe that SINWAR, DEIF and HANIYEH are criminally responsible for the killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians in attacks perpetrated by Hamas…and other armed groups on 7 October 2023 and the taking of at least 245 hostages,” Khan wrote.
“It is the view of my Office that these individuals planned and instigated the commission of crimes on 7 October 2023, and have through their own actions, including personal visits to hostages shortly after their kidnapping, acknowledged their responsibility for those crimes.”
Khan seeks arrest warrants for Israel PM, Defense Minister for starvation of civilians, attacking Gazan civilian population
Khan wrote that evidence gathered and examined by his office gave him reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant bear criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity that include the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, and intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population.
“My Office submits that the evidence we have collected, including interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, authenticated video, photo and audio material, satellite imagery, and statements from the alleged perpetrator group, shows that Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population of in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.”
“My Office submits that these acts were committed as part of a common plan to use starvation as a method of war and other acts of violence against the Gazan civilian population as a means to (i) eliminate Hamas; (ii) secure the return of the hostages which Hamas has abducted, and (iii) collectively punish the civilian population of Gaza, whom they perceived as a threat to Israel.”
“Since last year, in Ramallah, in Cairo, in Israel, and in Rafah, I have consistently emphasized that international humanitarian law demands that Israel take urgent action to immediately allow access to humanitarian aid in Gaza at scale,” Khan wrote. “I specifically underlined that starvation as a method of war and the denial of humanitarian relief constitute Rome Statute offenses. I could not have been clearer.”
“As I also repeatedly underlined in my public statements, those who do not comply with the law should not complain later when my Office takes action,” Khan wrote. “That day has come.”
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