https://antiimperialistnews.substack.com/p/instead-of-backing-down-to-the-icc
Hamas does not control the West Bank
May 22, 2024

In a massive fuck you to the International Criminal Court. Benjamin Netanyahu has decided that instead of reining in his genocidal troops, he would rather invade Jenin - both the city and the refugee camp. What is it with Zionists and refugee camps?

Jenin, in case you’re unclear, is located in the West Bank where Hamas is not in charge. In other words, this is not about “rescuing the hostages” or “defeating Hamas”, it’s simply about slaughtering Palestinians.

Israel sent in 1,500 soldiers with tanks, jeeps and bulldozers to cause mindless destruction while settlers reportedly burned down houses with families inside. IDF vehicles were filmed blocking off a Red Crescent ambulance, and ambulances were shot at, presumably due to the concern they were going to rescue injured people.

Bulldozers have been demolishing homes, crushing cars, digging up roads and destroying roundabouts. I’m unclear if there was a secret Hamas megabase under one of those roundabouts, but the parked vehicles must have been up to no good. The only other possibility is that this was destruction for destruction’s sake.

Seven civilians were killed during indiscriminate fire in Jenin refugee camp, including a teacher, surgeon and two children. One of the children was heading to school and the doctor was heading to the hospital. If you’re a Palestinian doctor you cannot risk looking like one in public, you have to wear civilian clothes for your own safety. If you’re a child, you cannot expect to be shown mercy, you are just as likely to be targeted as an adult. There is nothing you can do to guarantee your safety. An IDF soldier can decide to kill you at any time and for no reason.

These killings are war crimes and when your soldiers commit war crimes, your leaders are supposed to condemn them and take action to prevent further war crimes. Lack of condemnation is considered evidence of culpability. This is important because it means Israel’s leaders cannot accuse rogue soldiers to distance themselves from the crimes.

Israel has killed over 500 civilians in West Bank since October 7th while all eyes are on Gaza. It appears that Israel has made the calculation that if it’s going to be a Pariah state, it might as well go all out with its goal of “total occupation” and the establishment of a “Greater Israel”. If your leaders are going to be confined to their ethnostate, no matter what they do, they might as well do exactly what they want to do.https://antiimperialistnews.substack.com/p/instead-of-backing-down-to-the-icc

While some discuss the possibility of Netanyahu being overthrown by his own people, it would be foolish to think he would be replaced with something better. There is no “better” in Israeli politics, only lots of politicians with different views on how to steal Palestinian land.

Any serious pretence of Israeli innocence is now dead. Netanyahu has threatened Karim Khan KC on television, saying he’s not concerned about travelling but the ICC prosecutor should be concerned, hinting at the death of the Iranian president in a helicopter crash. Netanyahu accused Khan of turning the ICC into a “Pariah institution”, said the court is being “politicised” and people are not going to take it seriously. What decent people don’t take seriously is the idea of Israeli impunity. The only ones politicising the situation are Netanyahu and their accomplices.

Innocent people don’t threaten judges, they comply with due process and present the evidence of their innocence. By reacting the way he has, Netanyahu is going mask off. He knows the world knows he is guilty and is acting like a mob boss because it’s his only option - and he knows AIPAC’s puppets in the US will back him all the way.

Reptilian Senator Ted Cruz and other US lizards recently wrote a letter threatening the ICC which ominously ended with the words: “You have been warned”. Senator Tom Cotton went as far as to threaten the families of the ICC judges. They keep saying the ICC has no jurisdiction, but that’s not their call to make and they’re wrong.

The senators told the ICC “Target Israel and we will target you,” which is in itself a violation of international law. So much for the “international rules-based order”, eh?

The US and Israel have shown they’re willing to go after anyone or anything to get their way. No individual or institution is safe. Even the world’s most respected judges are now “anti-Semites” and “agents of Hamas”. If any world leaders back them, they too will be anti-Semites and agents of Hamas. You know that Hague Invasion Act we keep hearing about? Don’t put it past the US to put it into practice - and that would mean a US invasion of the Netherlands, a NATO member, all to protect Israel’s genocide. Is this all sounding a little too nuts?

We could be on the brink of seeing alliances across the west crumble. I struggle to imagine how this will pan out, but it’s hardly going to be good. The only good outcome would be for arrest warrants to be issued for all involved and for those warrants to be respected and for due process to take its place. That way we could stop genocide, clean up our politics, rid ourselves of the scourge of Zionism, and create a more peaceful, stable and democratic world. I wish.

Western leaders are faced with the decision of whether to recognise the arrest warrants for genocidaires (assuming they are issued) or go rogue with Netanyahu and collapse the international justice system. Many could go either way, but at least there are signs some are willing to do the right thing.

Ireland, Norway and Spain are about to recognise Palestinian statehood while the US is threatening to defund the World Food Program if the UN ratifies Palestinian statehood. Israel is saying statehood would be a “reward for terrorists” because they see all Palestinians as terrorists. France, Belgium, Norway, Slovenia and others have have indicated they would back the arrest warrants, but true to form, the US, UK and Italy are going in a different, fascist direction.

What happens if arrest warrants are issued for western leaders such as Biden and Sunak? This is where it gets interesting. While the US is not a signatory of the ICC, the Rome Statute is enshrined in British law. This means that if the police refuse to arrest wanted politicians, they can be referred to the ICC and prosecuted themselves. It also means any journalists providing cover can be arrested. There is the genuine possibility police would comply with those warrants to protect themselves. There is also the possibility they would refuse and the UK would become a rogue state, if we’re not one already.

The International Centre for Palestinian Justice has been gathering evidence and presenting it to British police for months. One of their lawyers appeared on Owen Jones’ podcast and explained how he expects arrest warrants to be issued for British officials and journalists. This did not come across as wishful thinking because his rationale had a strong legal basis. This could be a get your popcorn out moment.

What will happen, for example, if a warrant is issued for Sunak but not Starmer? Will proud Zionist Starmer throw Sunak under a bus to save his own skin and appease his voter base? Or will he back his fellow Zionist? This would be one almighty dilemma and whichever way Starmer went, it would be devastating for his reputation. If arrest warrants were issued for both party leaders, would the public support that or turn against the ICC and accept that having war criminals as leaders is a British tradition?

If you think the fractures caused by Brexit were significant, imagine the divides a subject this emotive would cause. We could end up tearing ourselves apart and all because our leaders refused to condemn a fucking genocide. It’s mind blowing.

We could end up in a situation where some western countries abandon the international justice system and others stick by it. This would cause colossal tensions. Imagine a world where our leaders can’t travel to any European country that has agreed to back those warrants. What you would end up with is chaos.

You would have a world where all the worst leaders would think they can act with impunity. You would create a global humanitarian crisis, all because our leaders decided to ignore the advice of their own lawyers and respect human rights and international law. They could have chosen to stop Netanyahu, instead they chose to jeopardise the world.

One worrying possibility is that our leaders go the Netanyahu route of seeking escalation to protect themselves. Following the death of the Iranian president, there is the real risk of an Iranian attack on Israel if they can establish Israeli culpability. Given Iran has probed Israeli defences and has the hypersonic missiles to breach those defences, this would not be like the warning attack from a few weeks ago. Let’s not forget Iran only used one tenth of the missiles it was initially intending to use in that attack.

A large strike from Iran would give Israel and its accomplices the excuse they need for all out war. This would be devastating not only for the region but for our economies, but it would provide our war criminal leaders with a massive distraction. They might be willing to escalate to save their own skin, and if you think that sounds far-fetched, we’ve gone to war for many reasons just as bad. Almost all our reasons for going to war are dreadful.

Oliver Dowden has been telling us to stock up on food and supplies in case of a national crisis and while he says he’s not trying to scare anyone, it’s an indication he knows something is coming. We can only speculate on what that something might be, but it’s hardly going to be something good. Do you feel reassured that our leaders are keeping us safe? Because I certainly don’t. It seems like every day they find another way to bring us closer to a completely avoidable World War III.