Tag Archives: ICC

US Senator says America rejects the Action of the ICC “We view this as a direct threat by an unelected, unaccountable body…”

US Senator Lindsey Graham

Important Takeaways:

  • [Here’s how the war began]
    • On Oct. 7, one day after the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, thousands of Hamas gunmen invaded southern Israel, kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing hundreds of Israelis.
    • On Oct. 8, the Israel Security Cabinet voted to officially declare war for the first time since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
    • On Oct. 27, the IDF began its Ground Operation in Northern Gaza
    • On Nov. 24, in accordance with a ceasefire agreement for the release of hostages by Hamas, the IDF paused their operations.
    • On Dec. 1, after Hamas violated the terms of the ceasefire agreement, the pause in fighting ended. Israel resumed their operations in the north of Gaza.
    • On Dec. 3, the IDF’s ground operation moved into southern Gaza after Israel dropped leaflets to inform civilians to evacuate key areas.
    • On April 1, Israel allegedly carried out an airstrike in Damascus, killing 7 IRGC members, including the top Iranian commander in Syria.
    • On April 8, the IDF withdrew ground troops from southern Gaza, maintaining that a operation in Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold, remains imminent
    • On April 13, Iran launched 200+ missiles and drones toward Israel from Iranian soil.
    • On July 30-31, an Israeli strike killed a Hezbollah Commander and Hamas’ top leader was assassinated in Tehran.
    • On Aug. 25, the IDF launched a large-scale preemptive strike targeting thousands of Hezbollah rocket launchers, thwarting a significant attack the terror group planned to immediately launch.
    • On Sept. 17-18, Hezbollah Pagers and other devices implanted with explosives simultaneously detonated in two waves, leaving 3000+ wounded and dozens of terrorists dead, in a highly sophisticated attack widely attributed to the Mossad.
    • Since Oct. 7, Over 1,600 Israelis (800 soldiers) have been killed, and over 13,000 have been injured.
    • 5,381 IDF soldiers wounded since the start of the war.
    • Still today Hamas holds 101 hostages
  • US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responded on Monday to Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly’s comments to a news publication regarding Senator Graham’s proposal to sanction any nation or group that aids and abets the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
  • In an interview with Politico, Joly was asked what is her response to Graham’s proposal, after Canada vowed to comply with the ICC order, and replied, “Canada will take its decision. Then the US will take its decision.”
  • On the possibility that Canada could face sanctions from the United States for complying with the ICC order, she replied, “We abide by international norms, including the fact that we’re a founding member of the ICC.”
  • Responding to the comments, Graham said, “I consider Canada to be one of America’s greatest allies and friends. We are not only neighbors – we also share many common values.”
  • “However, the idea that the International Criminal Court seeking arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister and former Defense Minister is an act of international rules-based order is beyond the pale,” he added.
  • “To my friends in Canada and throughout the world, America rejects – in the strongest possible terms – the Court’s efforts to issue warrants for duly elected political leaders of Israel for defending their nation against barbaric terrorism. We reject the jurisdiction claims of the Court. We will make it loud and clear that those countries who assist in enforcing the arrest warrants – even if they are close allies – will hit a wall of resistance in America,” Graham clarified.
  • “America must act decisively to reject this action by the ICC because we could be next. The court threatened to go after American soldiers for their conduct in Afghanistan but wisely chose not to.”
  • “Again, we are a mature democracy just like Israel, with an independent judiciary. To Canada and all others – we do not view this action as furthering international norms. We view this as a direct threat by an unelected, unaccountable body in The Hague against American sovereignty and as an existential threat to our allies in Israel who are fighting for their very existence.”
  • “President Biden objected to the ICC ruling, and I will be discussing with President Trump and his team how to respond forcefully,” concluded Graham.

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International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant

Gallant and Netanyahu

Important Takeaways:

  • The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.
  • The ICC accused Netanyahu and Gallant of a string of human rights abuses in the Gaza Strip, where local health officials said the death toll from the Israeli military’s yearlong assault on the Palestinian enclave had now passed 44,000.
  • Israel responded furiously to the warrants, with Netanyahu’s office branding the decision “antisemitic,” rejecting the charges as “absurd and false” and condemning the ICC as a “biased and discriminatory political body.”
  • Hamas welcomed the warrants as an “important step towards justice”…
  • Both Israel and the United States do not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC, which has no police to enforce its warrants. But the warrants do put the Israeli officials at risk of arrest in other countries, including much of Europe.

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Germany’s long-standing commitment to the defense of Israel has been thrown out the window: Germany now says it will arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot in the Country

Israeli-foreign-minister-Israel-Katz

Important Takeaways:

  • Germany will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters the country amid allegations of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, a spokesperson has confirmed.
  • Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, confirmed on Wednesday the country would ‘abide by the law’ and arrest the under-fire Israeli leader should he visit the EU nation.
  • This comes after British prosecutor Karim Khan announced on Monday that he is seeking warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas terror chiefs including Yahya Sinwar, the ruler in Gaza who masterminded October 7.
  • Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday Prosor wrote: “This is outrageous! The German “Staatsräson” is now being put to the test—no ifs or buts.
  • Staatsräson refers to Germany’s long-standing commitment to the defense of Israel, a policy declared by former Chancellor Angela Merkel during a 2008 speech to the Knesset.
  • The public statement that Israel has the right to self-defense loses credibility if our hands are tied as soon as we defend ourselves.’
  • Netanyahu has furiously condemned the ICC for ‘daring to compare’ Israel with ‘mass murderers’ after an arrest warrant was issued for both the Israeli prime minister and Hamas leaders.

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Read Netanyahu’s reaction to ICC indictments

Netanyahu-explains-Screenshot-640x480

Important Takeaways:

  • Netanyahu Reacts to ICC Indictments: ‘Pouring Gasoline on the Fires of Antisemitism’
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the decision by International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan on Monday to seek warrants against him and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza.
  • Khan also announced that he would pursue indictments against three Hamas leaders. Still, the unprecedented prosecution would place Israel on a morally equivalent level with Hamas and delegitimize defenses against terror.
  • Here is what he said:
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • Separately, South Africa — joined by several other sympathetic nations — is pressing the International Court of Justice (IDJ), a separate legal body, to declare that Israel’s defensive war against genocidal terrorists is itself a “genocide.”

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International Criminal Court seeks arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas leader

Netanyahu-Gallant-Sinwar

Important Takeaways:

  • The International Criminal Court intends to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity for Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war, its Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced Monday, on the 227th day of the Gaza war.
  • “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,” Khan stated.
  • Khan first spoke of the warrants in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour and then published a video and text statement from the court.
  • Netanyahu and Gallant would face accusations of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and willful killing.
  • Khan’s statement comes as Israel is in its seventh month of an existential war against Hamas, which led an invasion of the Jewish state’s southern border on October 7, killing over 1,200 people and seizing 252 as hostage, out of which 128 remain in captivity.
  • Israel has argued that its actions fell within the boundary of International law, stressing that there is no famine in Gaza.

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International Criminal Court rules it has jurisdiction over Palestinian territories

By Toby Sterling and Stephanie van den Berg

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court ruled on Friday that it has jurisdiction over war crimes or atrocities committed in the Palestinian Territories, paving the way for a criminal investigation, despite Israeli objections.

The decision prompted swift reactions from both Israel, which is not a member of the court and again rejected its jurisdiction, and the Palestinian Authority, which welcomed the ruling.

The ICC judges said their decision was based on rules in the Hague-based court’s founding documents and does not imply any attempt to determine statehood or legal borders.

The court’s prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in December 2019 there was “a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.”

She named both the Israeli Defense Forces and armed Palestinian groups such as Hamas as possible perpetrators.

She said she intended to open an investigation — as soon as judges ruled on whether the situation fell under the court’s jurisdiction or not.

In a majority ruling published Friday night, the judges said it does.

“The Court’s territorial jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine … extends to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” they said.

That Palestine’s status under international law is still uncertain does not matter, the judges said, as it has been admitted to membership of parties to the court.

In a reaction, Human Rights Watch called the decision “pivotal” and said it “finally offers victims of serious crimes some real hope for justice after a half century of impunity,” said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director.

“It’s high time that Israeli and Palestinian perpetrators of the gravest abuses – whether war crimes committed during hostilities or the expansion of unlawful settlements – face justice.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted, saying “the court is ignoring the real war crimes and instead is pursuing Israel, a country with a strong democratic regime, that sanctifies the rule of law, and is not a member of the tribunal.”

He added Israel would “protect all of our citizens and soldiers” from prosecution.

“The court in its decision impairs the right of democratic countries to defend themselves,” Netanyahu said.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was a “historic day for the principle of accountability.”

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, described the decision as “an important development that contributes in protecting the Palestinian people.”

“We urge the international court to launch an investigation into Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people,” said Abu Zuhri, who is currently outside Gaza.

The United States has “serious concerns” about the ICC’s effort to assert jurisdiction over Israeli personnel in the Palestinian territories, U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said, adding the U.S. government was reviewing the ruling.

ICC prosecutor Bensouda was expected to react later on Friday.

The Trump administration had vehemently opposed the ICC and its mission. Jamil Dakwar, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Human Rights Program, said U.S. President Joe Biden should do nothing to undermine the ICC’s independence.

“It’s important to remember that the ICC investigation would also target Palestinian perpetrators of war crimes in the context of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups, especially in the Gaza Strip,” Dakwar said on Twitter.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling, Anthony Deutsch, Stephanie van den Berg, Ari Rabinovitch, Stephen Farrell, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Arshad Mohammed, Humeyra Pamuk and Simon Lewis; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Daniel Wallis)

UN Head Says Palestinian Will Join International Criminal Court April 1

The head of the UN has taken an anti-Israeli action in stating that Palestine will join the International Criminal Court on April 1.

The move will allow Palestinians to harass Israel repeatedly with false accusations before the ICC.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed documents to join the ICC a day after the UN Security Council rejected their resolution for a three year deadline to establish a Palestinian state on Israeli occupied lands.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon posted on the UN’s treaty website that he was acting in the “capacity as depositary” for the ICC’s documents of ratification when allowed Palestine to enter April 1, 2015.

The move is part of an Palestinian campaign to attack Israel following the 50-day war started by Palestinians kidnapping and killing Israeli teenagers.  The move has seen blow back for the Palestinians, as Israel has withheld $100 million in tax funds and the Obama administration said they are reviewing the $440 million per year they have been sending to Palestine.