ICC Applies for Arrest Warrants For Ziofascist Israeli Regime Leaders Netanyahu and Gallant — And the Genocide of Palestinians, Part 20
An article in six sections: 1. Whisperings of and Threats Against ICC Action; 2. May 20, 2024: The ICC Applies for Arrest Warrants Against Ziofascist Israeli Regime Leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant; 3. Hamas Reactions; 4. Israel Reactions: More Ziofascist Propaganda and Genocide of Palestinians; 5. USA Reactions: More Ziofascist Propaganda, Genocide Support and Denialism; 6. Other Countries’ Reactions.
For earlier related articles, see “UN, ICC and ICJ (In)Action Against Ziofascist Israel’s 2023 to 2024 Genocide of Palestinians — Including the January 2024 ICJ Case” and “Colombia and Nicaragua Take ICJ Action Against Genocidal Israel and Germany.”
1. Whisperings of and Threats Against ICC Action
Before the big May 20, 2024 ICC announcement, there were already whisperings about the Karim Khan-led ICC taking legal action against the genocidal Ziofascist Israeli regime and Ziofascist threats against such action:
April 26
April 28
May 1
May 3
2. May 20, 2024: The ICC Applies for Arrest Warrants Against Ziofascist Israeli Regime Leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant
On May 20, 2024, the ICC announced that they applied for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders and, more importantly, against the genocidal, war criminal and crimes against humanity-committing Ziofascist Israeli regime leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the Prime and, respectively, Defence Ministers of the settler-colonialist terrorist state of Israel:
On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin NETANYAHU, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav GALLANT, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023:
- Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)(b)(xxv) of the Statute;
- Wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health contrary to article 8(2)(a)(iii), or cruel treatment as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)©(i);
- Wilful killing contrary to article 8(2)(a)(i), or Murder as a war crime contrary to article 8(2)©(i);
- Intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime contrary to articles 8(2)(b)(i), or 8(2)(e)(i);
- Extermination and/or murder contrary to articles 7(1)(b) and 7(1)(a), including in the context of deaths caused by starvation, as a crime against humanity;
- Persecution as a crime against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(h);
- Other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity contrary to article 7(1)(k).
My Office submits that the war crimes alleged in these applications were committed in the context of an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, and a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas (together with other Palestinian Armed Groups) running in parallel. We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy. These crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day.
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 in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.
This occurred through the imposition of a total siege over Gaza that involved completely closing the three border crossing points, Rafah, Kerem Shalom and Erez, from 8 October 2023 for extended periods and then by arbitrarily restricting the transfer of essential supplies — including food and medicine — through the border crossings after they were reopened. The siege also included cutting off cross-border water pipelines from Israel to Gaza — Gazans’ principal source of clean water — for a prolonged period beginning 9 October 2023, and cutting off and hindering electricity supplies from at least 8 October 2023 until today. This took place alongside other attacks on civilians, including those queuing for food; obstruction of aid delivery by humanitarian agencies; and attacks on and killing of aid workers, which forced many agencies to cease or limit their operations in Gaza.
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.
The effects of the use of starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza are acute, visible and widely known, and have been confirmed by multiple witnesses interviewed by my Office, including local and international medical doctors. They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women.
Famine is present in some areas of Gaza and is imminent in other areas. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned more than two months ago, “1.1 million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic hunger — the highest number of people ever recorded — anywhere, anytime” as a result of an “entirely manmade disaster”. Today, my Office seeks to charge two of those most responsible, NETANYAHU and GALLANT, both as co-perpetrators and as superiors pursuant to Articles 25 and 28 of the Rome Statute.
Israel, like all States, has a right to take action to defend its population. That right, however, does not absolve Israel or any State of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law. Notwithstanding any military goals they may have, the means Israel chose to achieve them in Gaza — namely, intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury to body or health of the civilian population — are criminal.
Since last year, in Ramallah, in Cairo, in Israel and in Rafah, I have consistently emphasised that international humanitarian law demands that Israel take urgent action to immediately allow access to humanitarian aid in Gaza at scale. I specifically underlined that starvation as a method of war and the denial of humanitarian relief constitute Rome Statute offences. 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. That day has come.
In presenting these applications for arrest warrants, my Office is acting pursuant to its mandate under the Rome Statute. On 5 February 2021, Pre-Trial Chamber I decided that the Court can exercise its criminal jurisdiction in the Situation in the State of Palestine and that the territorial scope of this jurisdiction extends to Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This mandate is ongoing and includes the escalation of hostilities and violence since 7 October 2023. My Office also has jurisdiction over crimes committed by nationals of States Parties and by the nationals of non-States Parties on the territory of a State Party.
Today’s applications are the outcome of an independent and impartial investigation by my Office. Guided by our obligation to investigate incriminating and exonerating evidence equally, my Office has worked painstakingly to separate claims from facts and to soberly present conclusions based on evidence to the Pre-Trial Chamber.
A CNN interview with ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan:
3. Hamas Reactions
From this January 2024 article by the senior Hamas member Dr. Mousa Abu Marzouk:
Hamas stands ready to appear before the ICC with witnesses and live testimony and bear the burden of any judicial finding against it or its members after a full and fair trial with rules of evidence; with examination and cross examination into we have done or not over the many years of our leadership as a national liberation movement. Is Israel?
Israel has gone to great pains these past three months of its unprecedented onslaught against our people to justify their rampant violation of international law on the basis of what they say happened and by whom on October 7th. In an ever-changing stream of allegations, it accuses the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, of a host of crimes and violations of international law. Putting aside the fact that what Israel alleges on a given Monday changes on Tuesday and what is stated with forensic or scientific certainty by Israel on Wednesday changes on Thursday there is a simple way to establish what did or did not happen on October 7th. A trial. We categorically deny the allegations lodged in the media by Israel and its supporters against us with regard to the events of that day and stand ready to defend ourselves at such a trial. Is Israel willing to proceed from rhetoric to evidence and to pursue justice in such a proceeding and to bear the consequences, whatever they may be? We are.
Ultimately in the broadest sense given Israel’s unprecedented onslaught upon our communities in Gaza and the West Bank these past three months, that is the question of our time. And while Israel has tried before the ICJ to rebut overwhelming independent first-hand evidence of the crimes it has committed most recently against our community of two plus million in Gaza, it has once again proven to be little more than coverup. Quite simply, under international law what did or did not happen on October 7th bears no legal relationship to or defense against what Israel has done to our people in the months since, as little more than not just brazen revenge, but clear violation of the Convention against Genocide.
Fact. Over these months Israel has dropped more bombs on Gaza than the allied forces on Germany during a two-year period of WWII. It’s fired some 30,000 air-to-ground munitions, 50 per cent of them unguided and launched more than 15,000 tank shells into our residences, hospitals, schools, shelters, and refugee camps.
Fact. These months of incessant Israeli attacks have killed more than 25,000 civilians with almost 13,000 children slaughtered, and another 60,000 wounded. Some 10,000 Palestinians are missing buried under the rubble of their homes and offices.
Fact. Hundreds of medical staff and teachers have been killed along with more than a hundred journalists and a like number of UN workers, all identified as such. More than 80 % of Gaza has been leveled including most hospitals, mosques and churches, schools and essential infrastructure. Like an earlier Nakba, more than 90% of our people have been forcibly dispossessed from their homes.
Fact. Half a million Gazans are starving. Denied food, water, medicine and medical support, hundreds of thousands of our people are sick with the likelihood of out-of-control infectious diseases to claim countless numbers of other civilian lives in the days to come.
More than seventy-five years ago the world watched in horror as the Nuremberg Tribunals put Nazi war criminals on trial, holding them accountable for horrific crimes they carried out against millions of defenseless Jews. From that nightmare came the Convention against Genocide under which, in relevant part, it is defined as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; © Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
We ask nothing now but that the Genocide Convention used against those that committed appalling crimes against Jews a lifetime ago be applied equally here and now for other no less fiendish crimes carried out by Israel against millions of defenseless Palestinians.
Law for one is law for all.
Mousa Abu Marzouk
is a senior member of Hamas
Dr. Mousa Abu Marzook is one of the original founders of Hamas, he was the first head of its political wing, imprisoned in the US for some two years because of it, and is now a leader of its international efforts.
4. Israel Reactions: More Ziofascist Propaganda and Genocide of Palestinians
The Ziofascist Israeli most responsible for the genocide of Palestinians agitates against the ICC decision by — what a surprise — invoking “blood libel” and the “Holocaust,” thereby further undermining whatever remains of international law:
“The outrageous decision by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants against the democratically elected leaders of Israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions. It will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court.
Israel is waging a just war against Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that perpetrated the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Hamas massacred 1200 Jews, raped Jewish women, burned Jewish babies, took hundreds hostage.
Now, in the face of these horrors, Mr. Khan creates a twisted and false moral equivalence between the leaders of Israel and the henchmen of Hamas. This is like creating a moral equivalence after September 11th between President Bush and Osama Bin Laden, or during World War II between FDR and Hitler.
What a travesty of justice!
What a disgrace!
The prosecutor’s absurd charges against me and Israel’s defense minister are merely an attempt to deny Israel the basic right of self-defense. And I assure you of one thing: This attempt will utterly fail.
Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against our enemies. Those days are over. Now the Jewish people have a state and we have an army to defend our state.
Notwithstanding the blood libels Mr. Khan has leveled, Israel will continue to wage this war in full compliance with international law. We will continue to take unprecedented measures to get innocent civilians out of harm’s way and to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches those in need in Gaza.
Mr. Khan also sets a dangerous precedent that undermines every democracy’s right to defend itself against terror organizations and aggressors. The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel and Mr. Khan’s actions will not stop us from waging our just war against Hamas.
But Mr. Khan’s abuse of this authority will turn the ICC into nothing more than a farce.
He’s doing something else. He is callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world. Through this incendiary decision, Mr. Khan takes his place among the great antisemites in modern times. He now stands alongside those infamous German judges who donned their robes and upheld laws that denied the Jewish people their most basic rights and enabled the Nazis to perpetrate the worst crime in history.
Two weeks ago, on Holocaust Memorial Day, I pledged this: No amount of pressure and no decision in any international forum will prevent Israel from defending itself against those who seek our destruction.
To all the enemies of Israel, including their collaborators in The Hague, I renew that pledge today. Israel will wage our war against Hamas until that war is won. Because never again is now”.
Translation:
Interviewer: “Are you concerned about travelling in the wake of this arrest warrant?”
Ziofascist Israeli ‘great leader’ Benjamin Netanyahu: “No, I’m not concerned about travelling. I think… I’m not concerned at all about our status. I, I think that the prosecutor should be concerned about his status, because he’s really turning the ICC into a pariah institution. People are just not gonna take it seriously. Ah, they see it as a politicized thing. I hope that the judges don’t turn, ah, don’t confirm what he says, because that will make them into a kangaroo court.
Ziofascist Israeli propagandists such as Arsen Ostrovsky also began to manufacture fake outrage in response to the ICC arrest requests against Netanyahu and Gallant:
Another critique:
As a response to the ICC proceedings, the Ziofascist Israeli regime began to lash out wildly at Palestinians. This once again confirms that they are indeed a genocide-, war crimes- and crimes against humanity-commiting insane and evil bunch who need to be sentenced for precisely those atrocities:
Itamar Ben-Gvir: “From the holiest place to the people of Israel, and which belongs only to the state of Israel. I say that tonight we will receive additional evidence why it is necessary to completely destroy Hamas.
The countries that recognized today a Palestinian state are giving a reward to the murderers, to the kidnappers, to the persecutors, and I say that we will not allow any surrender. We will not allow any surrender that includes even a declaration of a Palestinian state.
I say one more thing, that in order to destroy Hamas, we need to enter Rafah until the end, to do a root treatment […] and to control this place, the most important place [i.e. Al Aqsa Mosque].
From another Ziofascist Israeli regime minister:
Ziofascist Israeli genocide in the West Bank:
From the scene of the attack:
From a highly disturbing Ziofascist and Zionazi social media video, together with dramatic propaganda music in the background:
Ziofascist Israeli Netanyahu loyalist: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this video is for you.
We, the reservists, don’t intend to give the keys away to any Palestinian Authority, don’t intend to give the Gaza keys away to any entity: Hamas, Fatah or any other Arab entity. The reservists are behind you and want to win. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity. You have 100.000 combatants in reserves who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the nation of Israel, ready to die.
[Ziofascist victimhood delusions and propaganda, reversing victim and perpetrator:] We’ve lost everything. We lost our family life, we lost our livelihoods, and we have nowhere to go. We’ll stay here until the end, until victory.
[great Führer/leader, mutiny and total war & victory talk:] Yoav Gallant, you are incapable of winning a war. Resign. You are incapable of winning the war. You are incapable of commanding us, and I hereby inform you, Mr. Yoav Gallant, if we don’t go all the way to victory, 100.000 reservists will stay on the [Gaza] fence. We wont move from the fence. We will stay here on the fence. We will call all the residents of the state of Israel to get to Gaza, and under our protection. And we will listen to one leader, and that’s not the Defence Minister and not the Army Chief of Staff. It’s the Prime Minister.
Think real hard who you want to give the keys to after this. We want victory. Our brothers weren’t murdered in vain, weren’t raped in vain, and weren’t slaughtered in their beds in vain. We, who were called on October 7, and until this moment are in reserves, without sleeping with our families, want victory.
[genocidal talk:] We want decisive victory. We want to take apart whoever’s left here. Everyone who celebrated when we were slaughtered. All the little children who stepped on the heads of our brothers, the soldiers, when they stepped on the land of Gaza. All of them we want to kill. No one will stay alive. Those who harmed the nation of Israel, those who harmed our brothers, the Jews, the Druze, the Bedouins. We want to annihilate them.
[more great Führer/leader, mutiny and total war & victory talk:] And you, Mr. Gallant, are incapable of doing it. So I hereby inform you: Either you switch a record, switch the record, and get that we want to win, or we’ll only follow the Prime Minister. Only the one who will decide that we need to win, we’ll follow him. And I’m telling you: You wanted a military coup?
We the reservists, who can’t go back home anymore, we’ll show you what a decisive victory is, we’ll show you what victory is, and we’ll show you how real Jews [i.e. Ziofascists] win.”
The former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian can reveal.
Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.
[…]
Cohen’s personal involvement in the operation against the ICC took place when he was the director of the Mossad. His activities were authorised at a high level and justified on the basis the court posed a threat of prosecutions against military personnel, according to a senior Israeli official.
Another Israeli source briefed on the operation against Bensouda said the Mossad’s objective was to compromise the prosecutor or enlist her as someone who would cooperate with Israel’s demands.
A third source familiar with the operation said Cohen was acting as Netanyahu’s “unofficial messenger”.
Cohen, who was one of Netanyahu’s closest allies at the time and is emerging as a political force in his own right in Israel, personally led the Mossad’s involvement in an almost decade-long campaign by the country to undermine the court.
Four sources confirmed that Bensouda had briefed a small group of senior ICC officials about Cohen’s attempts to sway her, amid concerns about the increasingly persistent and threatening nature of his behaviour.
Three of those sources were familiar with Bensouda’s formal disclosures to the ICC about the matter. They said she revealed Cohen had put pressure on her on several occasions not to proceed with a criminal investigation in the ICC’s Palestine case.
According to accounts shared with ICC officials, he is alleged to have told her: “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”
One individual briefed on Cohen’s activities said he had used “despicable tactics” against Bensouda as part of an ultimately unsuccessful effort to intimidate and influence her. They likened his behaviour to “stalking”.
The Mossad also took a keen interest in Bensouda’s family members and obtained transcripts of secret recordings of her husband, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Israeli officials then attempted to use the material to discredit the prosecutor.
The revelations about Cohen’s operation form part of a forthcoming investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, revealing how multiple Israel intelligence agencies ran a covert “war” against the ICC for almost a decade.
Contacted by the Guardian, a spokesperson for Israel’s prime minister’s office said: “The questions forwarded to us are replete with many false and unfounded allegations meant to hurt the state of Israel.” Cohen did not respond to a request for comment. Bensouda declined to comment.
In the Mossad’s efforts to influence Bensouda, Israel received support from an unlikely ally: Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who played a supporting role in the plot.
Revelations about the Mossad’s efforts to influence Bensouda come as the current chief prosecutor, Khan, warned in recent days that he would not hesitate to prosecute “attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence” ICC officials.
According to legal experts and former ICC officials, efforts by the Mossad to threaten or put pressure on Bensouda could amount to offences against the administration of justice under article 70 of the Rome statute, the treaty that established the court.
A spokesperson for the ICC would not say whether Khan had reviewed his predecessor’s disclosures about her contacts with Cohen, but said Khan had never met or spoken to the head of the Mossad.
While the spokesperson declined to comment on specific allegations, they said Khan’s office had been subjected to “several forms of threats and communications that could be viewed as attempts to unduly influence its activities”.
Bensouda sparks ire of Israel
Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant last week marked the first time the court had taken action against leaders of a country closely allied with the US and Europe. Their alleged crimes — which include directing attacks on civilians and using starvation as a method of warfare — relate to the eight-month war in Gaza.
The ICC case, however, dates back to 2015, when Bensouda decided to open a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine. Short of a full investigation, her inquiry was tasked with making an initial assessment of allegations of crimes by individuals in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Bensouda’s decision sparked the ire of Israel, which feared its citizens could be prosecuted for their involvement in operations in Palestinian territories. Israel had long been open about its opposition to the ICC, refusing to recognise its authority. Israeli ministers intensified their attacks on the court and even vowed to try to dismantle it.
Soon after commencing the preliminary examination, Bensouda and her senior prosecutors began to receive warnings that Israeli intelligence was taking a close interest in their work.
According to two sources, there were even suspicions among senior ICC officials that Israel had cultivated sources within the court’s prosecution division, known as the office of the prosecutor. Another later recalled that although the Mossad “didn’t leave its signature”, it was an assumption the agency was behind some of the activity officials had been made aware of.
Only a small group of senior figures at the ICC, however, were informed that the director of the Mossad had personally approached the chief prosecutor.
A career spy, Cohen enjoys a reputation in Israel’s intelligence community as an effective recruiter of foreign agents. He was a loyal and powerful ally of the prime minister at the time, having been appointed as director of the Mossad by Netanyahu in 2016 after working for several years at his side as his national security adviser.
As the head of the national security council between 2013 and 2016, Cohen oversaw the body that, according to multiple sources, began to coordinate a multiagency effort against the ICC once Bensouda opened the preliminary inquiry in 2015.
Cohen’s first interaction with Bensouda appears to have taken place at the Munich security conference in 2017, when the Mossad director introduced himself to the prosecutor in a brief exchange. After this encounter, Cohen subsequently “ambushed” Bensouda in a bizarre episode in a Manhattan hotel suite, according to multiple sources familiar with the incident.
Bensouda was in New York in 2018 on an official visit, and was meeting Kabila, then the president of the DRC, at his hotel. The pair had met several times before in relation to the ICC’s ongoing investigation into alleged crimes committed in his country.
The meeting, however, appears to have been a setup. At a certain point, after Bensouda’s staff were asked to leave the room, Cohen entered, according to three sources familiar with the meeting. The surprise appearance, they said, caused alarm to Bensouda and a group of ICC officials travelling with her.
Why Kabila helped Cohen is unclear, but ties between the two men were revealed in 2022 by the Israeli publication TheMarker, which reported on a series of secretive trips the Mossad director made to the DRC throughout 2019.
A practical conclusion that can and must be drawn from all of these highly criminal and immoral actions of Ziofascist Israel — including for its failure to obey ICJ orders — is the already tested and tried one of BDS: Boycott, Divest and Sanction:
5. USA Reactions: More Ziofascist Propaganda, Genocide Support and Denialism
Regarding Israel-controlled AIPAC in the USA:
Genocide Joe: “We reject the ICC’s application of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. [applause] Whatever these warrant may imply: There’s no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. And it’s clear: Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civilian protection. But let me be clear: Contrary to allegations made against Israel by the International Court of Justice, what’s happening is not genocide. We reject that. We’ll always stand with Israel and the threats against its security.”
Antony ‘The Butcher’ Blinken:
The United States fundamentally rejects the announcement today from the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that he is applying for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, together with warrants for Hamas terrorists.
We reject the Prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans.
Moreover, the United States has been clear since well before the current conflict that that ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter. The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the Prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed. In other situations, the Prosecutor deferred to national investigations and worked with states to allow them time to investigate. The Prosecutor did not afford the same opportunity to Israel, which has ongoing investigations into allegations against its personnel.
There are also deeply troubling process questions. Despite not being a member of the court, Israel was prepared to cooperate with the Prosecutor. 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. 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 this investigation.
Fundamentally, this decision does nothing to help, and could jeopardize, ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would get hostages out and surge humanitarian assistance in, which are the goals the United States continues to pursue relentlessly.
Matthew Miller:
Lindsey Graham:
Ziofascist Senator Lindsey Graham: “So we, hopefully, together, will find a way to [slurred and inaudible] with the ICC, cause if they’ll do this to Israel, we’re next. They [slurred and inaudible] try to come after our soldiers — yeah, you can clap all you want to. They tried to come after our soldiers in Afghanistan, but reason prevailed. So at the end of the day here, what I hope to happen[sic!], is that we level sanctions against the ICC for this outrage, to not only help our friends in Israel, but protect ourselves over time. […]”
From Karim Khan’s CNN interview:
Karim Khan: “‘I’ve had some elected leaders speak to me […] and be very blunt: ‘This court is built for Africa, and for thugs like Putin’ was what one, ah, senior leader told me.
Ahm, we don’t view it like that. This court is the legacy of Nuremberg [i.e. the German Nazi trials]. This court is a sad indictment of humanity. This court should be the triumph of law over power and brute force — ‘grab what you can, take what you want, do what you will’ — , and we’re going to simply be un…, ah, we’re not gonna be dissuaded by threats or any other activities, because in the end we have to, ah, fulfill our responsibilities as prosecutors, as the men and women of the office, as judges, as the registry […].
Various other assorted Ziofascist US politicians:
Mike Johnson:
House Speaker Mike Johnson: “America should punish the ICC and put Karim Khan back in his place, and if the ICC is allowed to threaten Israel’s leaders, we know that America will be next. There is a reason that we’ve never endorsed the ICC, because it is a direct affront to our own soverignty. You don’t put any international body among, among… or above American sovereignty, and, and Israel does that… doesn’t do that either.
Congress is reviewing all of our options right now. We have some very aggressive legislation that we are going to push is, ah, as quickly as possible. Ah, it will impose sanctions, ah, and if the ICC moves forward with its absurd warrant of arrest or request, ahm, this will, this is going to be an even bigger international [i.e. national] problem.”
Following Ziofascist Israel and as usual, US mainstream media also resorted to using easily disproven atrocity propaganda, because easily disproven atrocity propaganda is the best defence that remains for genocidal Ziofascist Israel at this point:
The video with the false Ziofascist Israeli translations is here:
The truth about the easily disproven Ziofascist Israeli atrocity propaganda:
Ziofascist propaganda from the NYT:
Refutations of that kind of Ziofascist genocidal propaganda oozing out from Israel and the USA:
6. Other Countries’ Reactions
Israel and USA were obviously 10s or least supportive, so I will continue with other such Ziofascist regimes before gradually moving on to those governments who support the ICC case against genocidal Ziofascist Israel.
Italy
Czech Republic
Hungary
Britain
“This action is not helpful in relation to reaching a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian aid in,” the spokesperson said, referring to the decision made by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
The spokesperson said that the ICC did not have the jurisdiction to request the arrest warrants.
“The UK, as with other countries, does not yet recognise Palestine as a state and Israel is not a state party to the Rome Statute”, which outlines the ICC’s areas of jurisdiction, the spokesperson said.
Asked if the police would arrest Netanyahu if he came to Britain, the spokesperson said he would not comment on what he called “hypotheticals”.
The British deputy foreign minister Andrew Mitchell later told parliament that the ICC’s decision would not have an immediate impact on the government’s approval of licences so companies can sell weapons to Israel.
“The fact that the prosecutor has applied for arrest warrants to be issued does not directly impact, for example, on UK licensing decisions but we will continue to monitor developments,” Mitchell said.
London, 17th May 2024- Today, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has submitted a complaint to Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Team. The complaint addresses the crimes of ‘starvation as a weapon of war’ and ‘wilfully causing great suffering to a civilian population’, both illegal under British and international law. It expands an existing complaint issued by the ICJP in January 2024, which is still being actively considered by Scotland Yard.
The detailed complaint was prepared by ICJP, a London-based legal group, on behalf of Palestinian victims in Gaza. It addresses Israel’s suspected use of ‘starvation as a method of warfare’ and for ‘wilfully causing great suffering’ to Palestinians during its war on Gaza.
Both ‘wilfully causing suffering’ and ‘starvation as a weapon of war’ are war crimes under UK and international law, under the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court Act 2001. Using starvation as a weapon of war also violates the Geneva Convention.
The complaint builds on an initial complaint submitted to Scotland Yard on 12th January 2024, which named four British government ministers for alleged complicity and criminal responsibility in Israeli war crimes. This latest submission reiterates their alleged complicity, but also includes a fifth senior government minister as an alleged perpetrator of these crimes.
The alleged criminal acts are prosecutable in the United Kingdom and will now be considered by Scotland Yard’s War Crimes Investigation Team before a decision is made by them whether to open a formal criminal investigation, which could see alleged perpetrators questioned, arrested and prosecuted.
The complaint is one of the most comprehensive complaints submitted to date to Scotland Yard in relation to Israel’s plausible risk of genocide in Gaza. The 60-page complaint has been annexed with a further 800 pages of evidence, collected from first hand eyewitnesses, expert reports and expert evidence from nineteen medical professionals who have worked in Gaza since October. The evidence was collected by ICJP’s investigation and legal teams, which include former British police detectives, who collected the evidence to British police force standards.
ICJP Director Tayab Ali said:
“Complicity comes in many forms, whether that be providing political cover, encouraging criminal acts, supplying weapons or as in the case of starvation withholding funds from agencies that provide life sustaining humanitarian aid”.
We intend to ensure that allegations of war crimes against suspected Israeli war criminals and those who enable them are prosecuted, whether that be at the ICC, in the UK or across the globe. We will ensure that there will be no place for suspected war criminals to hide, especially not the UK.
We are confident about our ability to hold war criminals to account here in the UK and across the globe. We have compiled and submitted high-quality eyewitness and expert evidence, drafted to the highest criminal legal standards. Now it’s in the hands of those who can deliver the accountability we so desperately need to see”.
Ziofascist propaganda from the British propaganda outlet The Economist:
Austria
Taiwan
From me, another about 7 would need to be given to the US imperialist and project of Taiwan:
Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opted against taking a stance on a push from the International Criminal Court to prosecute the Israeli prime minister and Hamas leaders over the war in the Gaza Strip Tuesday.
The court’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants Monday for Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister and senior Hamas leaders.
“The International Criminal Court is independent in its work, and I’ve said from the very beginning how important it is that everyone respect and abide by international law,” Trudeau said at a Tuesday afternoon news conference in Philadelphia.
“What I will say is troubling though, is the sense of an equivalency between the democratically elected leaders of Israel and the bloodthirsty terrorists that lead up Hamas. I don’t think that’s helpful.”
Germany
The International Criminal Court is a fundamental achievement of the international community that Germany has always supported. Germany respects its independence and the conduct of proceedings just as it does for all other international courts.
In this case, the Pre-Trial Chamber now has to decide on the applications of the Prosecutor for the issuance of arrest warrants as a first step.
The Court will have a host of difficult questions to answer here, including in particular the question as to its jurisdiction and the complementarity of investigations carried out by affected states governed by the rule of law, which include Israel.
The simultaneous applications for arrest warrants for the Hamas leadership on the one hand and the two Israeli officials on the other have resulted in an incorrect implication of equivalence. Nevertheless, the Court will now have two very different situations to assess, as presented in detail by the Prosecutor in his applications.
The Hamas leaders are responsible for a barbaric massacre in which men, women and children were deliberately murdered, raped and kidnapped in the most brutal fashion in Israel on 7 October. Hamas continues to hold Israeli hostages captive in unspeakable conditions, to fire missiles at Israel and use the civilian population in Gaza as human shields.
Protecting and defending its citizens from this is the right and duty of the Israeli Government. It is clear that humanitarian international law applies here with all the obligations contained therein.
“Scholz does not doubt that Israel adheres to international law”:
Also political Germany:
But at least something:
From the German government spokesperson Hebestreit:
Speaking of arrest warrants, the ‘great German leader’ of the EU Ursula von der Leyen may be next:
Today the International Criminal Court has been officially called to investigate Ursula von der Leyen for complicity.
Reasonable grounds exist to believe that the unconditional support of the President of the European Commission to Israel — military, economic, diplomatic and political — has enabled war crimes and the ongoing genocide in Gaza
The Hague (The Netherlands), 22 May 2024
– A communication is submitted today to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), setting forth in detail, through facts and evidence, that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the current president of the European Commission, Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen, a national of Germany, is complicit in a number of violations of international humanitarian law, amounting to crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC, committed by the Israeli armed forces (IDF) against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including the Gaza Strip.
This communication, endorsed by various human rights groups and prominent academics and experts in international criminal law, calls the Prosecutor to initiate investigations on the basis of the information provided against Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen.
The communication documents in detail the fact that Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen personally is criminally responsible and liable for punishment for some of the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide having been committed (and still being committed) by the Israeli armed forces in the OPT, to the extent that she has aided, abetted and otherwise assisted in the commission or attempted commission of such crimes, including providing the means for its commission, in the meaning of Article 25(3)© of the Rome Statute of the ICC. Mrs. von der Leyen enjoys no functional immunity before the ICC by virtue of article 27 of the Rome Statute.
Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen has become complicit in violations of articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute through a range of positive acts as well as omissions, in her official capacity as president of the European Commission. Positive acts include the following:
− Military support to Israel: Mrs. von der Leyen, in her official capacity as president of the European Commission, has been instrumental in securing the provision of means, under the form of military support, to the IDF. During the period 2019–23, Israel has been the 3rd main recipient of weapons provided by a EU Member State, Germany, itself the 5th largest exporter of major arms in the world.
− Economic and financial support to Israel: both by refusing to take any steps toward the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and by promoting, amidst the current Israeli assault on Gaza, new EU-Israel cooperation instruments.
− Diplomatic support to the Israeli government: this appears to be a response to the demand formulated by Prime Minister Netanyahu on 7 October 2023 on the international community “to ensure freedom of action for Israel in the continuation of the campaign”. The diplomatic support enjoyed by Israel has been the condition sine qua non of the perpetration of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide plausibly committed by the IDF in the Gaza Strip since 7 October.
− Political support: the various official statements of Mrs. von der Leyen expressing unconditional support to Israel have amounted to giving encouragement and moral support to members of the IDF, involved in the commission of crimes against the Palestinian population in the OPT.
The President of the European Commission had knowledge of participating, by aiding and abetting, in the commission of the relevant crimes. Given the wide publicity given on a daily basis to the violations of international humanitarian law perpetrated by the IDF in the Gaza Strip, especially since October 2023, and the wealth of official United Nations reports and documents available, which as a matter of fact have prompted numerous UN officials — including the UN Secretary-General — to express their utmost concern, Mrs. von der Leyen cannot escape the simple fact that she knew of such crimes, or at the very least she knew of the plausibility of such crimes, as determined by the ICJ in its Order on provisional measures of 26 January 2024 as regards genocide.
Also about the Ziofascist von der Leyen:
The complaint was filed by GIPRI against the European Commission head at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 22 May.
The complaint, supported by various human rights groups and prominent scholars and experts in international criminal law, urges the ICC prosecutor to initiate investigations based on the information provided against von der Leyen.
“Reasonable grounds exist to believe that the unconditional support of the President of the European Commission to Israel — military, economic, diplomatic and political — has enabled war crimes and the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” the complaint read.
A former UN independent expert, Alfred de Zayas, published a personal statement stressing that von der Leyen, in her capacity as president of the Commission, had an effective role in accessing the military support provided by the European Union to the Israeli army.
He stated that von der Leyen did not impose economic and military sanctions on Israel, and made many statements containing information about providing diplomatic support to Israel.
Sweden
Denmark
“I look at this with great seriousness. After all, we recognise the ICC and stand guard over its independence. And therefore I can do nothing more than take note of it,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said, according to state news media outlet DR.
“It seems a little precarious to me that the leader of a democratic state is mentioned on an equal footing with the leader of a terrorist organization,” the foreign minister said, adding: “But it does not change my conclusion, namely that we have respect for the ICC.”
Lithuania
Commenting on the ICC’s bid, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said he found it surprising that both Netanyahu and Hamas leaders were put in the same category.
“It is an unexpected decision and perhaps a little surprising in its equation of the accused, because what is equated are the head of a democratic state and what we consider to be the head of a terrorist organisation,” Landsbergis told reporters at the Lithuanian parliament, Seimas, on Tuesday.
“From the initial comments that I have heard, the court did not emphasise the status of the defendants but the status of the victims,” he added.
Landsbergis stressed that no final decision had been taken on the arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister.
“I want to stress that the decision is not final, it is the prosecutor’s appeal to the pre-trial authority, which has the final decision to make as to whether or not it will apply the arrest warrant,” he said.
Lithuania has been a supporter of Israel. However, it is also a state party of the Rome Treaty that undergirds the ICC.
Asked whether Lithuanian officials would detain Netanyahu if an arrest warrant is issued and the Israeli prime minister comes to Lithuania, Landsbergis said that “the people who are subject to restrictions, their travel possibilities, their geography are severely limited”.
“Lithuania is in a situation where we cannot choose whether we like or dislike the decisions of the international court,” he commented. “The same court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for crimes committed in Ukraine, we are part of that court and we have to take the decisions as they are.”
Australia
France
La France a condamné dès le 7 octobre les massacres antisémites perpétrés par le Hamas. Ce groupe terroriste a revendiqué des attaques barbares dirigées contre des civils, accompagnées d’actes de torture et de violences sexuelles qu’il a lui-même documentés, y compris en les diffusant et en les célébrant.
Concernant Israël, il reviendra à la Chambre préliminaire de la Cour de se prononcer sur la délivrance de ces mandats, après avoir examiné les éléments de preuve avancés par le Procureur pour étayer ses accusations, en tenant compte du principe de complémentarité et de l’action possible des juridictions israéliennes. La France alerte depuis de nombreux mois sur l’impératif de respect strict du droit international humanitaire et notamment sur le caractère inacceptable des pertes civiles dans la bande de Gaza et d’un accès humanitaire insuffisant.
La France soutient la Cour pénale internationale, son indépendance, et la lutte contre l’impunité dans toutes les situations.
La France est engagée pour la recherche d’une solution politique durable dans la région, la seule qui permette de rétablir un horizon de paix et de mettre fin aux souffrances des Israéliens comme des Palestiniens.
EU
Ireland
Spain
Switzerland
Liechtenstein
Malta
Belgium
Colombia
Another 1 goes to Colombia:
Norway
Possibly also deserving a 1 is Norway:
[this article is likely to be updated with further ICC-related developments]
