The Biden administration lifted sanctions on two ICC prosecutors that had been imposed by former president Donald Trump. The Israel lobby isn’t happy.
Dan Shapiro, Obama’s former ambassador to Israel, continues to serve as a mouthpiece for the Israeli government with this laughable claim: “Israel… has a long record of conducting investigations of actions of its own military… it’s quite professional.”
An ICC investigation of Israel’s actions against the Palestinians is an instance of long, long overdue justice, of leveling the playing field to some degree. Why? Because while Israel is by no means the world’s worst malefactor, it is definitely the world’s most lavishly indulged one.
Several hundred Israelis could face arrest in official ICC probe of war crimes in Palestine, Defense minister Gantz says, as AIPAC urges Biden and Congress to condemn the move. The investigation will also target Israeli settlements, which European countries have said are illegal.
“The Palestinians have never had this kind of a card in their sleeve, that actually might restrain Israel.” Human rights attorney Michael Sfard says that there is “absolutely no way” for the ICC to evade an investigation of Israeli settlements as a war crime.
By attempting to scuttle international judicial efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions, the Biden administration is continuing a bipartisan pattern that stretches back at least to the George W. Bush administration.
The International Criminal Court’s decision on Friday confirming its jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory has made waves in Israel, Palestine, and abroad in recent days. In a video response released over the weekend, Benjamin Netanyahu called the Israeli crimes in questions “fake war crimes,” and accused the court of specifically targeting Israel.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that the U.S. government will impose sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, over her investigation into whether or not American troops committed war crimes in Afghanistan.
The US and Israel are stepping up their attacks on the International Criminal Court as its chief prosecutor finally looks poised finally to give the court some teeth. Fatou Bensouda is threatening to investigate the two states whose actions have been particularly damaging to international law in the modern era.
Norman Finkelstein says that the International Criminal Court crossed a “Rubicon” when it announced a formal investigation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza and its ongoing settlement project, but that the ICC will likely use a technicality, that Palestine has no standing as a state, to throw out the case. The real battle will be in public opinion, and the case may help force the reckoning inside the Democratic Party.