Tag: war crimes

House Passes Bill To Sanction Cooperation With The ICC Following Netanyahu Arrest Warrant

When newly re-elected Speaker Of The House Mike Johnson was first elected to the chair in 2023, his first act of business was to advance a bill providing an additional $14.3 billion in aid to Israel to fund its war in Gaza. This came after the House Of Representatives entered into a period of stasis following the historic success of the Motion To Vacate filed against Kevin McCarthy that would depose him as Speaker Of The House and replace him with Johnson. Despite the backlog of work Congress faced, Johnson’s decision to prioritize aid to Israel over the interests of the American people served as an ominous portent of things to come under his leadership.

Given the legacy that Johnson forged immediately after ascending to the role of Speaker Of The House, it comes as no surprise that the House Of Representatives would pass a bill sanctioning the International Criminal Court following his re-election. The impetus of the bill was to serve as a response to the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Although neither the United States nor Israel are party to the Rome Statute that gives the ICC jurisdiction over them, other nations who are party to it can enforce those arrest warrants. The mere possibility of any of those countries doing so was enough for Congress to go DEFCON 1 in order to protect the Netanyahu regime.

The name of the bill, The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act (H.R. 23) reads as if were the title of a polemic, leaving little doubt about the political motives behind it. Under its parameters, any foreign party that investigates, arrests, detains, or prosecutes citizens of the United States or its allies (namely Israel) who are not signatory to the Rome Statute under the directive of the ICC will face severe sanctions. The bill passed the House as one of the first acts of the 119th Congress by a vote of 243-140 without any Republicans voting against it. Sanctions under the present text of H.R. 23 include prohibiting the transaction of any property in the US by those seemed to be assisting the ICC and revocation of their US visas with immediate effect. Additionally, the bill rescinds any existing funds appropriated for the ICC and bars any future appropriations for them.

While the bill has yet to pass the Senate, newly appointed Republican Majority Leader John Thune, the senior senator from South Dakota, has pledged to bring it to a vote in expedited fashion. Given the unconditional support of House republicans for the bill and the majority they hold in the Senate, its passage appears to be an inevitability as does incoming president Donald Trump’s decision to subsequently sign it into law. Given that Trump will not be inaugurated until January 20th and lame duck/brained president Joe Biden has voiced his opposition to the act, a Senate vote will likely coincide with the new administration taking office.

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US Congress backs sanctions on ICC

The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) in retaliation for the judicial body’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.

The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act would impose sanctions on ICC officials and entities supporting the court’s investigations, arrests, and detentions of Americans and citizens of allied countries. The legislation was passed 243 to 140 on Thursday.

In a statement ahead of the vote, Representative Brian Mast, who leads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called The Hague-based judiciary a “kangaroo court.”

The bill will now move to the Senate, where Republicans have the majority. The Democrats blocked a similar bill when they controlled the Senate in June.

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UN Expert Urges Medical World to Cut Ties With Israel Amid Attacks on Gaza Hospitals

As Israeli forces stand accused of war crimes during attacks on multiple Gaza hospitals in recent days, Francesca Albanese – the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories – on Monday implored the global medical community to respond by cutting ties with Israel.

“I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel’s full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide,” Albanese wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Albanese amplified a post by Dr. Rupa Marya – one of the most vocal defenders of Palestinian human rights in the U.S. medical community – calling on Israeli forces to release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.

Abu Safiya, who documented Israel’s siege and attack on Kamal Adwan and who reported last week that nearly 50 people including five hospital staff members were killed by an Israel Defense Forces airstrike on a nearby apartment tower, was among dozens of other medical staffers abducted by IDF troops on Saturday.

After besieging and attacking the hospital for weeks, Israeli forces raided the facility and rounded up 240 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel claimed without evidence that Kamal Adwan was being used as a Hamas command center. With the facility shut down and badly damaged, critical patients and their caregivers were forced to evacuate to the nearby Indonesian Hospital.

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US Could Deal Death Blow to International Law

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) stunning issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity is a major game changer. After years of impunity, the chickens unleashed by Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza have finally come home to roost.

These charges against Netanyahu and Gallant are momentous. This is the first time the ICC has issued arrest warrants against an Israeli official for crimes against the Palestinian people. It is only the second time in its 22 years of existence that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for someone who is not from the African continent.

Palestinian human rights organizations Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights called the ICC’s decision “a historic and pivotal moment in the battle against Israel’s impunity, in which the Palestinian people have been denied justice, and subjugated for decades under a genocidal, settler-colonial apartheid regime.”

[On Monday the ICC president blasted both the U.S. and Russia for interfering with the court in “appalling” attacks.

“The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council [the U.S.] as if it was a terrorist organization,” Judge Tomoko Akane said.]

US History of Undermining the ICC

The United States had a fraught relationship with the ICC even before it opened for business in 2002. As President Bill Clinton was leaving office, he signed the court’s Rome Statute, stating,

“I believe that a properly constituted and structured International Criminal Court would make a profound contribution in deterring egregious human rights abuses worldwide, and that signature increases the chances for productive discussions with other governments to advance these goals in the months and years ahead.”

But Clinton urged incoming President George W. Bush to refrain from sending it to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification. Bush went even further and, in an unprecedented move, unsigned the treaty on behalf of the United States. Since then, the U.S. has consistently tried to undermine the ICC.

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‘The ICC’s findings so far have only scratched the surface’

Last week, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The court’s judges, in their Nov. 21 ruling, found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the pair were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the context of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza — namely, using starvation as a method of warfare, as well as “murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

The ICC’s judges issued an additional warrant for the arrest of Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Deif, whom the Israeli army claimed it killed in July but whose death Hamas never confirmed; the group insisted at the time that Deif survived the assassination attempt, but has reportedly since acknowledged that he likely died. The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, had also requested arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, but Israel subsequently killed both men, in August and October respectively. 

The ICC launched a formal criminal investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel-Palestine in 2021, when judges ruled that the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories and those committed by Palestinians inside Israel. The scope of the investigation dates back to 2014, but these warrants relate specifically to the period between Oct. 8, 2023, and May 20, 2024. 

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Who Takes International Law Seriously?

The Washington Post published a despicable editorial in response the International Criminal Court’s warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant:

But the arrest orders undermine the ICC’s credibility and give credence to accusations of hypocrisy and selective prosecution. The ICC is putting the elected leaders of a democratic country with its own independent judiciary in the same category as dictators and authoritarians who kill with impunity.

If the ICC had not issued these warrants in the face of the overwhelming evidence that the Israeli government was using starvation as a weapon, that would have been devastating to the Court’s credibility in the eyes of most nations. Everyone would have concluded that the ICC had bowed to American political pressure by letting these officials off the hook. It is a victory for international law that they didn’t allow fears of the insane backlash from Washington to influence their decision.

One of the problems that the Court has had since its inception is that Western and Western-backed governments always seem to get a pass when they commit war crimes. Many critics did complain about hypocrisy and selective prosecution in the past because for many years it seemed as if the ICC only went after African leaders. That started to change when the ICC issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest last year. The Post was singing a very different tune then, saying that the Court had taken an “important step” when it did that. There were no complaints about the wrong “venue” at that time. The Post had no objection to the ICC going after a war criminal leader that they oppose.

It will come as a revelation to the Post’s editors, but democratically elected leaders can be guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICC did not put Netanyahu and Gallant in the same category as dictators and authoritarians. They did that themselves with their brutal and atrocious policies. If they didn’t want to be classed with other rogue leaders, they shouldn’t have committed such terrible violations of international law.

Spencer Ackerman explained recently that the ICC struck a blow for international against the so-called rules-based international order. International law isn’t just for one’s enemies or the world’s pariahs, but it has to be applied to all equally if it means anything. As Ackerman put it, “It’s sufficient to observe here that international law requires universal application, while the Rules-Based International Order preserves American and allied Exceptionalism, making war crimes less about barred conduct than about who gets to commit it.” Cheerleaders of the rules-based order assume that some people and some states are above the law, and these warrants are a direct challenge to that. That is one reason why there has been such an angry reaction in Washington.

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Justin Trudeau Stands Proudly Next to Granddaughter of Prominent WWII Nazi as He Announces He Will Arrest Israeli Leader Netanyahu if He Enters Canada

Earlier Thursday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas official Mohammed Deif.

The charges stem from alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the conflict following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, where Hamas men, women, and children slaughtered 1,300 Jews in southern Israel, including hundreds of kids, at a concert, and then took another 250 Jews hostage.

The Oct. 7 attack by Hamas was the largest slaughter of Jews in one day since World War II.

In response to this barbaric attack, the Israeli president vowed to destroy the Hamas terrorist group after decades of attacks on Israeli soil.

Since that time, thousands of Hamas fighters and innocent civilians have been killed in Gaza, where Hamas hid in the communities in schools, mosques, and hospitals.

This led the ICC to call for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu for continuing to hunt down Hamas fighters in Gaza and, more recently, Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon in order to bring stability to the region.

During a press conference on Thursday, Little Castro Justin Trudeau, announced that he will have Israeli Leader Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if he travels to Canada.

Justin made the announcement while standing next to his top aide Chrystia Freeland.

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ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant

On Thursday the International Court of Justice (ICC) issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a member of Hamas leadership.

The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were for charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The court unanimously agreed that the prime minister and former defense minister “each bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

“The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024,” the court detailed in its allegations.

The ICC also charged Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for mass killings during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, including rape and hostage taking.

A plan suggested by former IDF general, Giora Eiland, called for the explicit emptying out of northern Gaza and the labeling of all remaining civilians as military targets, as well as the purposeful blockage of humanitarian aid. Netanyahu reportedly did not agree to the plan, but evidence points to aspects of the plan being enacted.

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‘Legacy of Horror’- White House Staffers Slam Biden’s Policy towards Israel

Around 20 White House staffers have criticized United States President Joe Biden for not enforcing an ultimatum on Israel to take “concrete measures” to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip or face potential restrictions on arms provisions, Politico reported.  

“You are running out of time to do the right thing, but decisive action could save precious lives in the next two months,” the staffers wrote, according to a letter obtained by the American news outlet.  

According to Politico, the staffers who signed the letter – on condition of anonymity for fear of career retribution – work across the White House executive office of the president but are not directly involved in Middle East policy.  

“One thing that drew me into this was legacy,” a senior White House staffer who signed the letter told Politico, stressing that, “if the course is continued, it will be a legacy of horror.”  

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UN Committee Says Israel Is Carrying Out a Genocide, HRW Says Israel Is Committing War Crimes

On Thursday, a report published by a special UN committee said Israel’s actions in Gaza are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” while Human Rights Watch released a report saying Israel was committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing.

The UN report, released by the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, said Israel has used “criminal means” to achieve its military goals, including the use of starvation as a weapon.

“This included intentionally causing death, starvation, great suffering, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of warfare, and intentionally directing attacks against civilians,” the report reads.

The committee, which was formed in 1968, also discussed the occupied West Bank, where it said Israel has an “apartheid system of injustice.” The report said the “killing of and serious bodily or mental harm caused to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are violations under international law.”

The HRW report focused on Israel’s forcible displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. “Israeli authorities have caused massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023 and are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity,” HRW said. “There is no plausible imperative military reason to justify Israel’s mass displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population, often multiple times.”

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