The UN Court addressing disputes between nations is the
International Court of Justice (ICJ), where a case has been brought by
South Africa against Israel in relation to the Gaza conflict and
genocide. An interim ruling by the Court on May 24th ordered Israel to
halt its Rafah (a southern Gaza city) offensive . So far Israel has not
complied and the bombing (and killing) continues.
The
other UN court involved with the Gaza problem is the International
Criminal Court (ICC). There its Edinburgh-born British chief prosecutor , who is also King's Counsel, has requested arrest
warrants for two Israeli and three Hamas leaders, who in the view of a panel of experts, have committed crimes within the ICC's jurisdiction.
An ICC three-judge panel is reviewing the request and if it is granted, any state of the 124 that are party to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, will be obliged to arrest the indicted individuals and surrender them to the ICC for trial. Under these circumstances travel for these principals would become almost impossible for fear of arrest. Small wonder that Bibi Netanyahu is afraid of the course of events despite the bluster.
The
main objection of many critics is the equivalence implied in the chief
prosecutor's request between duly elected leaders like Netanyahu and
unelected Hamas officials and it is tied with the additional claim of
Hamas being a terrorist organization.
Bibi
Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant the Israeli Defense Minister are accused of
the war crimes of starving civilians, willful killings of civilians
through attacks directed at them, all of which are crimes under the Rome
Statute that established the ICC. And these are not subject to any
statute of limitations of a prescribed period of time.
In
addition, the Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail
Haniyah are charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes
commencing October 7 when Hamas invaded Israel. The Hamas operatives
under their orders who infiltrated on October 7, 2023 are accused of
murder, rape and other sexual violence plus acts of torture and other
cruel treatment of hostages during captivity.
While the pre-trial panel continues its review of the arrest warrants application, the chief prosecutor's office continues to be busy gathering more evidence. The latter can also mean there may be more indictments.
Should the arrest warrants be issued, they would remove a veil of impunity that elected leaders tend to assume shields them.
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