JERUSALEM — The scandal-plagued Worldwide Legal Courtroom’s determination to situation arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish state’s former protection minister has introduced the courtroom into the crosshairs of a potent American sanctions regime.
The ICC final week slapped arrest warrants on Netanyahu and ex-Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant for his or her conflict plans concerned in rooting out Hamas terrorism within the Gaza Strip.
Hamas slaughtered almost 1,200 folks on Oct. 7, 2023, in southern Israel, together with over 40 People.
Israeli information outlet Kan mentioned President-elect Trump’s administration plans to provoke sanctions in opposition to the ICC judges who issued the warrants, together with the courtroom’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan.
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Former President Trump shakes arms with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Seaside, Fla., on July 26, 2024. (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu through Getty Photos)
The British chief prosecutor, Khan, is presently the topic of a probe primarily based on allegations that he dedicated sexual misconduct, one thing that he has vigorously denied, noting that there was “no reality to strategies” of such habits, in accordance with studies.
Avi Bell, a professor of regulation on the College of San Diego and Bar Ilan College in Israel and founding dean of the Israel Legislation and Liberty Discussion board’s annual program on regulation and democracy, advised Fox Information Digital, “A number of years in the past, the ICC threatened to cost American troopers for alleged crimes in Afghanistan. The truth that the ICC lacked jurisdiction didn’t trigger the ICC to pause even for a second. It was solely President Trump’s sanctions in opposition to the ICC (throughout his first time period) that pressured the ICC to obey the regulation and drop its menace to prosecute People. Sanctions in opposition to the ICC will work; persuasion won’t.”
Trump’s nominee for nationwide safety adviser, Mike Waltz, introduced on X, “You’ll be able to count on a powerful response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC and U.N. come January.”
One among Trump’s key Senate companions, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., upped the ante in a current Fox Information interview, saying, “To any ally, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, if you happen to attempt to assist the ICC, we’re going to sanction you.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the affiliate dean for the L.A.-based Simon Wiesenthal Heart, warned democratic states that they may face persecution from the judicial activism of the world’s high conflict crimes courtroom primarily based in The Hague, Netherlands.
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Karim Khan is the ICC’s chief prosecutor. (Getty Photos/File)
He advised Fox Information Digital, “The warrant from a kangaroo courtroom makes a mockery of justice and is a victory for Iran and its terrorist lackeys. Israeli leaders are responsible of defending their residents from genocidal terrorists. France and the Netherlands had been the primary to substantiate they’d arrest PM Netanyahu and the record may attain 124 nations. Democracies beware you may be subsequent.”
Each the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations branded the ICC a faulty judicial system for People and rejected becoming a member of the worldwide physique.
“The arrest warrants in opposition to Netanyahu and Gallant are legally a joke, however they represent a really critical growth,” Bell mentioned. “Below Karim Khan’s predecessors as ICC prosecutor, the ICC was merely ineffective. Khan has ushered in an period of political buffoonery during which the courtroom devotes the majority of its assets to political grandstanding. With the brand new indictments, the courtroom is grandstanding on behalf of terrorists and among the world’s worst criminals.”
When approached for a remark about Bell’s criticism, ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah advised Fox Information Digital, “We don’t touch upon such declarations.”
Israel opened up the Kisufim for the switch of humanitarian assist vehicles. The help consists of the supply of meals, water, medical provides and shelter gear to central and southern Gaza. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit)
The authorized scholar urged nations to stroll away from the ICC, saying, “The ICC will solely desist from its course whether it is pressured to pay a heavy value. Nations ought to withdraw from the Rome Statute and stop paying dues. They need to impose sanctions on the ICC and forbid cooperation with the ICC. And as long as the ICC persists in issuing warrants for individuals over whom it has no jurisdiction on trumped-up costs, ICC personnel ought to face legal sanctions for tried kidnapping and assist for terrorism.”
The ICC, which commenced operations in 2002, bases its authority on the signatories of the Rome Statute, which outlines 4 core worldwide crimes that the courtroom will prosecute: genocide, crimes in opposition to humanity, conflict crimes and crimes of aggression, all of that are “not topic to any statute of limitations” however restricted to solely crimes that occurred after the statute got here into drive.
When requested if anti-Jewish sentiments animated the ICC warrants, Bell mentioned, “I don’t get the impression that the warrants are because of the ICC judges’ private antisemitism. The ICC has at all times preyed on the politically weak: previously African nations and now the Jewish state. It’s widespread antisemitism within the West, particularly amongst progressives, that makes Israel politically weak and susceptible. The ICC could also be bigoted, however the ICC’s try and prosecute Israelis regardless of their authorized innocence is known as a signal of a a lot larger institutional ethical depravity than mere bigotry.”
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A terrorist from Hamas takes half in a army parade. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File)
Gabriel Noronha, a former U.S. Division State adviser on Iran who’s now a fellow on the Jewish Institute for Nationwide Safety of America, advised Fox Information Digital the ICC has identified that it may face penalties for its authorized motion in opposition to the Mideast’s solely democracy, Israel, however the ICC “determined to disregard diplomacy and face the repercussions of the US.”
He added that U.S. sanctions would imply that affected ICC personnel won’t be able to safe visas to enter the U.S. and their property and financial institution accounts will likely be frozen in America.
“The sanctions might be fairly broad and embrace members of the family,” Noronha famous.
Noronha echoed Graham’s remarks. A second Trump administration, he mentioned, may implement a “Diplomatic technique to impose penalties on nations that cooperate with these specific ICC warrants.”
Some European nations have already slammed the ICC determination. Austrian Overseas Minister Alexander Schallenberg wrote on X, “The ICC determination to situation arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant is totally incomprehensible. Worldwide Legislation is non-negotiable and applies all over the place, always. However this determination is a disservice to the Courtroom‘s credibility.”
He continued, “It’s absurd to create an equivalence between members of a democratically elected authorities and the chief of a terrorist group.”
The ICC additionally issued an arrest warrant for the already useless Hamas terror chief Muhammad Deif.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala flatly dismissed the Worldwide Legal Courtroom’s determination to situation arrest warrants in opposition to Israeli leaders.
“The ICC’s unlucky ruling undermines authority in different instances by equating the elected representatives of a democratic state with the leaders of an Islamist terrorist group,” he wrote on X.
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Conservative Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused the ICC of “interfering in an ongoing battle for political functions,” saying the choice to situation the warrant for Netanyahu over his conduct of the conflict in Gaza undermined worldwide regulation and escalated tensions.
The U.S. and the European Union have categorized Hamas as a overseas terrorist group.
The Related Press and Fox Information’ Peter Aitken contributed to this text.
