Articles
The ICC decision is in the balance. By Ali Abu Habla
.Translated from Arabic by Ibrahim Ebeid
The ICC decision is in the balance.
By Ali Abu Habla
May 22,2024
In an unprecedented situation in the history of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict since the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, submitted requests to the Court for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Minister of War Yoav Galant, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, Muhammad Deif, the commander-in-chief of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the movement’s military wing, and the head of the movement’s political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, for their responsibility for what is happening in Gaza. Although the request of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is marred by a formal and objective defect when he equated between the victim and the executioner and between the occupier who exercises brute force against the occupied territory and its inhabitants, the request of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to request the arrest of the Israeli Prime Minister and his Minister of War Galant can be described as unprecedented, as this is the first time that an international organization of the size of the International Criminal Court, condemns the Israeli entity, a close ally and very close to America. Arrest warrants against its leaders for their responsibility for the atrocities in Gaza, atrocities that have been committed against the Palestinian people for more than seven centuries, without accountability, accountability, or even criticism. Despite the flaws of the decision submitted by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in his equality between the victim and the executioner, this may be a matter of satisfaction to satisfy America and after the Western countries and to legitimize the actions taken by the prosecution of the Court, and with all that, what was submitted by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court against his leaders from Hamas, will not change the reality of the Palestinians anything, as the Palestinians were and still are, accused by Western governments and the United Nations system dominated by America. US President Joe Biden has asked the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials on charges of war crimes, saying that the war on Gaza, which has claimed the lives of more than 38,000 Palestinian civilian martyrs since it began last October, is “not genocide.” Biden said, during an event at the White House during the “Jewish-American Heritage Month,” that “what is happening is not genocide,” rejecting the attempt of the court’s prosecutor Karim Khan to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant, describing his decision as “disgraceful.” This comes in defense of the US ally, Tel Aviv, at a time of increasing international pressure on it to stop its crimes in the Gaza Strip, as the US president pledged “firm support for Israel” and stand with it. It is remarkable that the decision of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, came without addressing the crimes committed by the Israeli entity. All the leaders of this entity, without exception, built on his accusation and focused on the “starvation strategy” practiced by the Israeli entity in Gaza and on the person of Netanyahu and Galant, without the rest of the leaders of this entity. It seems that the reason for this focus on the “starvation strategy,” as legal experts believe, is “the difficulty of proving other crimes, compared to the ease of proving the crime of mass starvation.” practiced by Israel”!. Note that there is evidence and proof in the statements of Israeli officials, which constitutes a clear and explicit condemnation of incitement to commit crimes It is striking that Karim Khan did not show shame in adopting the Israeli narrative and attaching charges of “extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, and sexual assault in detention” easily to the leaders of the resistance. However, these charges were sourced from the Israeli entity. They were picked up by the American and Western media, which later retracted them after it was proven that their claims were untrue and false so the American newspapers that published this fabricated news apologized to their readers and retracted them. What is assumed and not disputed is that Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, is more aware than others of international law, which gives the occupying people the right to defend themselves and their land with all the power and means at their disposal. This defense cannot be described as terrorism. He also knows better than others that Gaza and the West Bank are occupied Palestinian territory, according to the law adopted by the United Nations. No non-Palestinian military force can be described in it except as occupied, and this applies to the Israeli occupation forces and to all Israeli settlements. The truth is that the International Criminal Court would not have dared to issue arrest warrants against the leaders of the Zionist entity, despite all the threats and threats issued by influential countries, had it not been for the commitment and steadfastness of the Palestinian people, who confirmed to the whole world that there is an occupied territory, that there is an occupied people, that there is humanity being slaughtered, and that everything that was said about “the neutrality of America, the democracy of the West, and the morality of the Israeli army” is nothing but misinformation and lies dispelled by the facts on the ground and what is being committed. of crimes against the Palestinian people.
Translated from Arabic by Ibrahim Ebeid.
