In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel (chosen from the 18 members of the ICC) has concluded that the claims of the International Criminal Court to have jurisdiction to open a criminal investigation of possible war crimes that may have been committed by Israel or the Palestinians during Operation Protective Edge, which was fought in Gaza in 2014. What makes this decision particularly disturbing is that Israel is not a member of the ICC, and only members of the ICC are held subject to its jurisdiction. But different rules apply, apparently, when it comes to Israel.
A previous Jihad Watch report on this is here, and a news article about this travesty is here: “ICC has jurisdiction to probe Israel, Hamas for war crimes, pretrial judges rule,” by Jacob Magid, Times of Israel, February 5, 2021:
In a major decision released Friday, a pretrial chamber of the International Criminal Court determined that The Hague has jurisdiction to open a criminal investigation against Israel and the Palestinians for war crimes alleged to have taken place in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
ICC chief prosecutor Fatouh Bensouda indicated in 2019 that a criminal investigation, if approved, would focus on the 2014 Israel-Hamas conflict (Operation Protective Edge), on Israeli settlement policy and on the Israeli response to protests at the Gaza border….
Bensouda has considerably broadened her remit. Assigned to study the possible prosecution of war crimes during the 2014 Israel-Hamas conflict, she chose as well to study two very different subjects — the “legality” of Israeli settlements created throughout the West Bank over the past 50 years, and Israel’s handling of the Hamas-organized “Great March of Return” that was held by Palestinians marching towards, and attempting to breach, Israel’s security fence with Gaza every Friday between March 30 2018 and December 27, 2019, when at last it was discontinued.
It has always been well understood that the ICC has jurisdiction only over those states that are members of the ICC. Israel is not, but this did not prevent two of three ICC judges from ruling that it did not matter.
In the US, State Department spokesman Ned Price said his office was still reviewing the decision. However, he clarified that the Biden administration has “serious concerns about the ICC’s attempts to exercise its jurisdiction over Israeli personnel.”
The Biden Administration ought to have come out with both guns blazing, denouncing this absurd decision. What is there that needs “reviewing”? Why is the U.S. merely expressing “serious concerns” instead of dismissing the farce? Israel is not a member of the ICC. Therefore Israel – like all other non-members, including the United States itself — is not subject to its jurisdiction. There is one way that a country that is not a member of the ICC may be referred to it, if the UN Security Council so decides. But Israel was not so referred; the U.S. still has its veto in the Security Council.
“We have always taken a position that the court’s jurisdiction should be reserved for countries that consent to or that are referred to by the UN Security Council,” Price added, hinting at US opposition to the decision, given that Israel is not a member of the ICC. The US is also not a member. The Palestinians joined the court in 2015.
Aside from never consenting to the ICC’s jurisdiction, Israel was also not “referred to” the ICC by the UN Security Council. Such an attempt would have been futile, for the Americans still possess a veto at the UNSC, and even under Biden, would not permit such a travesty.
The ICC is meant to serve as a court of last resort when countries’ own judicial systems are unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute war crimes. Israel’s military has mechanisms to investigate alleged wrongdoing by its troops, and despite criticism that the system is insufficient, experts say it has a good chance of fending off ICC investigation into its wartime practices. When it comes to settlements, however, some experts say Israel could have a difficult time contesting international law forbidding the transfer of a civilian population into occupied territory.
Both the Israeli military itself, and Israel’s judicial system are known for the thoroughness of their investigations of all claims of war crimes. The ICC’s prosecutor, Fatouh Bensouda, completely ignored Israel’s track record, in her own investigation, treating the Jewish state as if it were a lawless state on the level of North Korea or Iran or – “Palestine.”
Israel was originally accused of “war crimes” in the earlier, 2008-2009 Gaza operation, by Justice Richard Goldstone, who later admitted that he had been quite wrong to accuse Israel, for after submitting his report, he had learned much more about the IDF’s methods of warning civilians, and the great care it takes to minimize such casualties. A report by the Anti-Defamation League contains this summary of how Israel holds its soldiers to the highest standards and how it investigates itself:
IDF guidelines strictly call for the prevention of harm to uninvolved civilians. Allegations that individual Israeli soldiers acted unethically or illegally during Israel’s military operations in Gaza were carefully investigated and legal action was taken against soldiers found to have committed violations, including criminal indictments.
In an April 2011 op-ed in the Washington Post, Justice Richard Goldstone, the lead author of the infamous 2009 Goldstone Report which charged Israel with war crimes through a deliberate policy to target civilians during the 2008/09 Gaza operation, wrote “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.” Justice Goldstone withdrew the report’s most serious claim that the Israeli Defense Forces intentionally targeted civilians during their operations in Gaza. The op-ed, entitled “Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and War Crimes,” further commended Israel’s investigations into charges of abuse. As Justice Goldstone concluded, “the investigations published by the Israeli military and recognized in the U.N. committee’s report…indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy.” He further wrote of Hamas: “rockets were purposefully and indiscriminately aimed at civilian targets…That comparatively few Israelis have been killed by the unlawful rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza in no way minimizes the criminality[of Hamas].”
Allegations regarding incidents during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge are still under investigation. Despite Israel’s best efforts to avoid harming non-combatants, there were many civilian injuries and deaths were reported in Gaza. As in prior Israel-Hamas conflicts, Hamas had deliberately placed its operational centers, storage facilities and rocket launching sites, infiltration tunnels, in densely populated areas, including private homes, mosques, schools and medical facilities, a violation of the Law of Armed Conflict (which prohibits a party to hostilities from deliberately making civilians the object of attack). Hamas’ own military manuals urged their fighters, many of whom posed as civilians and non-combatants, to use populated civilian areas so that it “increases the hatred of the citizens towards the attackers [the IDF] and increases their gathering [support] around the city defender [Hamas].” Israel enacted procedures to warn civilians though leafleting, phone calls and other methods, that their neighborhoods and buildings were located in the vicinity of military operations and urged them to leave the area. In response to these warnings, Hamas advised Gaza residents to ignore “Israeli propaganda” and stay in their homes.
In keeping with its commitment to observing international law, Israel created a permanent Fact Finding Assessment Mechanism (FFA Mechanism) to compile alleged violations of international law during Operation Protective Edge, approximately 100 incidents in total. The incidents are being investigated by Israel’s Military Advocate General (MAG) which has launched criminal investigations into a number of the alleged violations.
It should also be noted that many of those who accuse the IDF or individual Israeli soldiers of war crimes believe that military action can never be justified, and do not provide guidelines for what they would consider the justified use of force in the context of a state battling a terrorist organization entrenched in a densely populated area.
Israel has done everything possible to minimize civilian casualties. A close observer of Operation Protective Edge, British Colonel Richard Kemp, has testified to the many ways that Israel warned civilians to flee impending attacks: through leafletting, telephoning, emailing, radio broadcasts, and Israel’s inventive “knock-on-the-roof” technique.
And, Colonel Kemp noted in his report, no army has been so quick to investigate its own soldiers for putative war crimes like the IDF. And tomorrow we’ll get to Colonel Kemp’s observations on how admirably Israel fights its wars.
Malcolm (South Afric) says
How about the ICC taking up Muslim oppression of Christians in every corner of the world.
What has this organization done to protect minorities. The ICC needs to get an Emmy award for making a noise , an Oscar award for theatrical B/S. A Nobel peace prize for sitting on their backside the whole day
jca reid says
Totally agree with you, Malcolm. No mention of taking the Russians for their War Crimes in Afghanistan, or elsewhere. Never bothered the North Vietnamese either. Only go after Democratic countries. A far easier target.
maria says
ICC is a muslim antisemitic organisation., like Hitler´s SS.
They should be dissolved, but Biden the senile fraudster supports them. Biden is one of the first antisemites in the world
Buraq says
This is a scam with the aim of validating so-called Palestine’s claim to be a ‘people’. By arraigning both parties as though they are on an equal footing because they are deemed to share the self-same attributes of a recognized sovereign State, the fictitious State of Palestine is validated.
Of course, this Stalinist show trial, would exonerate ‘the Palestinians’ (Hamas) and blame Israel for everything that happened. Two for the price of one: blame Israel and validate the bizarre claims of the so-called Palestinians.
The ICC stands for International Court of Clowns!
owensgate says
Note to Israel: Ignore them. They can do nothing.
JohnTheRevelator says
Until we start treating Muslims as the actual Nazis that they are, they will continue to take advantage of our court system to punish their enemies, esp. Jews and Israel.
They cleverly managed to convince Leftists that they’re an oppressed minority so they have these useful idiots doing the devil’s work at all our expense.
I understand now why they say it is better to be feared than loved. Israel has been playing the game wrong for decades. They need to make Palis too afraid to try anything against them.
Muslims see kindness as weakness, which is why they try to bully Israel. If Israel simply removed all the terrorists from Gaza/West Bank and their supporters, the rest of them would know to keep their mouths shut and then they’d have real peace.
James Lincoln says
JohnTheRevelator says,
“They need to make Palis too afraid to try anything against them.”
The IDF responds rapidly to aggression by Hamas.
Things quiet down for a while, and then the unprovoked attacks against Israel continue.
Apparently, muslims have a very short memory…
JohnTheRevelator says
Due to a weak politically correct gov’t, the IDF’s response to Hamas is weak and pathetic. They mostly shoot empty buildings, they give the terrorists 10 min warnings before they attack. Rather than kill terrorists, they bulldoze their homes.
This is how you fight a losing battle. If their places were reversed, Hamas would eradicate Israel and all its inhabitants. The IDF could wipe out Hamas in hours or days….the problem is that Israel’s leaders worry too much about the opinion of countries that hate them.
Meanwhile you have radical Left and Arab parties working to weaken and destroy Israel from within. Until they have a leader with brass balls who will deal with enemies both foreign and domestic, Israel will keep losing the overall war.
We have a similar problem in western nations. Traitors and cowards are allowing the Islamic invaders to gain the upper hand and we’re all paying the price for it.
gravenimage says
Why the ICC’s Claim of Jurisdiction Over Israel and Palestinians for War Crimes is Disturbing
………………..
It *is* disturbing. Democratic Israel is constantly condemned, and the savagery of Muslim countries ignored or even condoned.
Charlie in NY says
The IDF actions in Gaza were so far beyond what Western militaries have done in the past when fighting in urban environments (see Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan) that our own US military dispatched high level staff to Israel on a “lessons learned” mission.
Here’s a link to the statement from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
https://www.jcs.mil/Media/News/News-Display/Article/571775/chairman-says-israel-acted-responsibly-in-gaza-operation/
If Israel is guilty of war crimes, then every Western army that has engaged in combat operations since the ICC’s inception are even more so.
By way of contrast, the European Court on Human Rights just threw out a civil case for compensation brought by Afghani survivors (or heirs) of some 90 civilians killed in a German air strike on two tanker trucks, on the grounds that the commander believed that only Taliban terrorists were in the vicinity.
https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf/?library=ECHR&id=003-6940295-9330841&filename=Grand%20Chamber%20judgment%20Hanan%20v.%20Germany%20-%20Investigation%20following%20a%20lethal%20airstrike%20during%20NATO%20operations%20in%20Afghanistan%3A%20no%20violation%20of%20the%20Convention.pdf