In the world’s highest courts, US President Joe Biden has defended Israel against accusations of war crimes.
Following the announcement by Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that he was requesting arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant due to suspected war crimes during the Gaza conflict, Biden made his statements.
At a Jewish American Heritage Month event held at the White House on Monday, Biden declared, “Let me be clear, we reject the ICC’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.” On the same day, Khan announced that he was requesting arrest warrants for Hamas leaders, Netanyahu, and Gallant due to suspected war crimes.
“Hamas and Israel are not comparable,” Biden continued. He had called the ICC warrants “outrageous” in a highly worded statement a few hours earlier.
South Africa has filed a separate complaint against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging genocide.
According to Biden, Israel is not carrying out genocide in Gaza.
“What is occurring in Gaza is not genocide, despite accusations made by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Israel. In his remarks, Biden stated, “We reject that.”
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared in January that there was a real possibility of genocide in Gaza and directed Israel to implement a number of interim measures, including stopping any genocide from occurring.
Even while Biden’s support for Israel was well received at the White House event, pro-Palestinian demonstrations throughout the US have tainted his election campaign, leading some antiwar activists to refer to the president as “Genocide Joe.”
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Panel of experts
The ICC prosecutor listed specific accusations against Gallant and Netanyahu, such as “extermination” and “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare,” but he insisted that his probe was still underway.
Khan also requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders: Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (also known as Deif), and Yahya Sinwar. The charges against the three men included crimes against humanity and war crimes, such as killing and exterminating people, kidnapping, torturing, rape, and other sexual assaults.
Evidence gathered by a panel of specialists, which included international human rights attorney Amal Clooney, bolstered the charges.
“I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law,” Clooney said in a statement released in response to the experts’ assessment.
Some US Republican lawmakers were even more forceful in their criticism of the ICC prosecuting Israel on Monday.
“My colleagues and I look forward to make sure neither Khan, his associates nor their families will ever set foot again in the United States,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton wrote on X.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first permanent international court for war crimes, and if a wanted person is on the territory of one of its 124 member states, that state is required to take urgent action to arrest them.
As the US is not a signatory to the ICC, its “biggest leverage” may be to exert pressure on its allies, namely European countries, to delay acting on the warrants, according to Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro, who is reporting from Washington, DC.
Israel does not had ICC membership. Neither are Russia or China.
There have been differing responses from around the world to the ICC prosecutor’s proposal to issue arrest warrants.
Switzerland’s UN representative, Pascale Baeriswyl, stated that her nation “fully supports the court and stresses the importance of respecting its independence” in remarks made to the UN Security Council.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin due to allegations of war crimes in Ukraine. However, this move on Monday represents the court’s first attempt to get involved in a Middle East conflict.