It’s hard to imagine there have been many leaders more deserving of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court than Benjamin Netanyahu in my lifetime, and it looks like one could actually be imminent. It looks like the world could have finally reached the point where Israel is no longer above international law.
Netanyahu is said to be “frightened and unusually stressed” by the prospect of a warrant that is believed to be only a matter of time. Poor thing should try being a limbless orphan in Gaza, wondering who is going to take care of him, that’s fear. What Netanyahu is facing is the consequences of his monstrous actions. Those children did nothing to deserve their suffering whereas Bibi deserves everything he gets.
The reports are that the US and Israel have been in “panic mode”, trying to stop the warrants for Netanyahu and senior Israeli officials, but their efforts have failed. I can only assume they didn’t have kompromat on any of the decision makers and they did not succeed in their attempts at intimidation. Make no mistake, these war criminals would stoop to any level to get themselves off the hook. Chief Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan must have balls of steel. All I’m saying is if I were him, I wouldn’t be standing near any upper-floor windows for the foreseeable future.
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Surely, it’s illegal for an accused government to pressure an international court to not issue arrest warrants against its officials. Surely, that’s mafia tactics and that in itself should count as evidence against Netanyahu’s regime.
Israel is suspected of asking the US to sanction the ICC as it did during the Trump administration to protect US soldiers accused of war crimes. Palestine recognises the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, but the US and Israel do not. I think this tells us a lot.
The totally sane and rational Bezalel Smotrich showed how much Israel is respecting international law by threatening to crush the Palestinian Authority financially if the ICC issues arrest warrants. You can’t expect the world’s most moral army to abide by international law,, can you?
One of the war criminals expecting an arrest warrant is Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant who has not exactly hidden his genocidal intentions. The evidence at his trial will be mostly the things he has publicly stated, such as “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” and “We will eliminate everything - they will regret it.”
Netanyahu has issued a statement saying he does not recognise the legitimacy of the ICC and his foreign minister Israel Katz said: “If necessary, we will not leave the country”. Ironically, they could soon find out what it feels like to be prisoners in their own land. Sorry, I meant to say someone else’s land.
Netanyahu posted on Twitter:
“Under my leadership, Israel will never accept any attempt by the ICC to undermine its inherent right of self-defense. The threat to seize the soldiers and officials of the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish state is outrageous. We will not bow to it. Israel will continue to wage to victory our just war against genocidal terrorists and we will never stop defending ourselves. While the ICC will not affect Israel’s actions, it would set a dangerous precedent that threatens the soldiers and officials of all democracies fighting savage terrorism and wanton aggression.”
Democracies? Democracies do not commit genocides. Democracies do not have different sets of laws for different races and religions. Democracies do not lock children in prison without charge. Democracies do not refuse to comply with international humanitarian law. Whatever Israel is, it’s no democracy.
Israel stands accused of breaching the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Surely, this is as open and shut a case as you could possibly have. These people have been destroying food warehouses for God’s sake, and then there’s the hospitals they turned into battlegrounds.
It would be almost funny to hear them say things like “release the hostages” and “fuck around and find out” and “Israel has a right to defend itself” at trial in the Hague. Our garbage media might treat these as legitimate arguments, but no credible court would. It’s a matter of time until Yoav Gallant loses his shit and screams at the judges “You’re all Hamas!” That should go down well.
In all seriousness, I’m not expecting Israeli officials to stand in the dock, I’m expecting them to hide like the cowardly worms they are.
Israel is fighting the arrest warrants on the diplomatic front, but it hasn’t occurred to them to stop doing genocide and comply with the ICJ’s provisional measures. When the ICJ issued those measures, Netanyahu implied he would ignore them, calling the genocide charge “disgraceful”, but then he said Israel has an “unwavering commitment to international law”. Words no longer have meaning, do they?
Reuters is reporting they have seen an internal memo to Anthony Blinken where US officials state that assurances Israel is complying with international law are not credible. The fact the US government is still defending Israel is as clear an indication as the ICC can get that they are willing accomplices. They can have no defence of ignorance when their advisers are keeping them fully informed of the reality in Gaza.
Blinken has to report to Congress by May 8th whether it’s credible that Israel is complying with international law, but unless there is a major U-turn, I can only assume he is going to do a Rishi Sunak and lie. I mean why break the habit of a lifetime?
One interesting aspect is that once the ICC issues arrest warrants, the US has to cease all arms sales to the accused country under US law, but given the US doesn’t recognise the ICC’s authority over its own citizens, I doubt they will recognise it over Israel’s.
Under British law, it only has to be plausible that a country is breaking international law and we must stop selling it weapons, yet the Tories are ignoring their own lawyers to continue supporting the genocide they’re going to pretend they always opposed.
So far, the US is doing exactly the same.
One indication the US might be wavering is that Nancy Pelosi, who has previously described funding Israel as America’s “top priority”, is trying to distance herself. She said Netanyahu’s behaviour has been “terrible” and she even sounded sympathetic towards the protesters she had previously accused of being tied to Russia. She knows the writing is on the wall and she is pretending she is not one of the war criminals.
If anyone lets Israel’s accomplices wash their hands of this genocide, they too are accomplices. If I had my way, Biden, Pelosi, Sunak, Starmer and many others would be getting locked up with Netanyahu and his cohorts for the rest of their wretched lives. Give the sadistic bastards the Assange treatment and see how they like it. It’s the very least they deserve for the death and suffering they’ve caused. Our leaders are the very worst among us.The last working-class hero in England.
Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Re: War criminal Netanyahu is bricking it over ICC arrest warrants
The issuing of warrants is understood to only be a matter of time
Some commentators on MoA consider this a rumour started by Israel. Also, as we all know ICC has been a joke and is a poodle of the Empire and has been such for many years. I can't see them growing a pair in a hurry. ICJ is of course different.
on April 29, 2024, 4:35 pm