{"id":281616,"date":"2024-12-02T12:01:37","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T12:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=281616"},"modified":"2024-12-01T09:01:44","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T09:01:44","slug":"the-united-states-raises-a-middle-finger-to-the-international-criminal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/the-united-states-raises-a-middle-finger-to-the-international-criminal-court\/","title":{"rendered":"The United States Raises a Middle Finger to the International Criminal Court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Emily Karaka (Aotearoa), Parallel Process: Palestinian Horizon, 2024. Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. Installation view: Ka Awatea, A New Dawn, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah, 2024<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

As the ICC finally issues arrest warrants for Israeli leaders Netanyahu and Gallant, the US confirms it has no regard for international law or a genuine rules-based order.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

28 Nov 2024 <\/em>– Finally, before history ends, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued<\/a> arrest warrants for Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The indictment stated that there \u2018are reasonable grounds to believe that both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity\u2019. The court found sufficient reasons to believe that the two men \u2018bear criminal responsibility\u2019 for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, and the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against a civilian population. Almost immediately, US President Joe Biden condemned the court\u2019s actions, stating that the \u2018ICC issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous\u2019. The United States, Biden said<\/a>, \u2018will always stand with Israel\u2019.<\/p>\n

A short walk from Biden\u2019s White House sits Freedom House, an institution set up in 1941 and predominantly funded by the US State Department. Each year, Freedom House releases its Freedom in the World<\/em> index, which uses various data points to adjudge whether a country is \u2018free\u2019, \u2018partly free\u2019, or \u2018not free\u2019. Adversaries of the United States \u2013 such as China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Russia \u2013 are consistently found to be \u2018not free\u2019, even if they have electoral processes and legislative bodies of various kinds (in Iran\u2019s 2024 legislative elections, for example, 15,200 candidates ran for 290 seats in the Consultative Assembly; while last year in Cuba, the 470 seats in the National Assembly of People\u2019s Power were elected by 75.87% of eligible voters). Meanwhile, the 2024 index accords Israel with a \u2018global freedom score\u2019 of 74\/100 and proclaims it to be the only \u2018free\u2019 state in the region, despite the authors noting<\/a> that in Israel \u2018the political leadership and many in society have discriminated against Arab and other ethnic or religious minority populations, resulting in systemic disparities in areas including infrastructure, criminal justice, education, and economic opportunity\u2019. According to the measurements of this US State Department-funded index, which is routinely used to disparage countries around the world that it deems unfree, an apartheid system built on occupation and now genocide is considered an exemplary democracy.<\/p>\n

Indices, such as the one from Freedom House, are not as innocent as they may appear. The design of the index \u2013 built on the subjective assessments of analysts and advisors selected from the world of Western establishment think tanks \u2013 produces outcomes that are often prescribed. While Freedom House claims to draw from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights<\/a> (1966), it ignores the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights<\/a> (1966). The latter would necessitate understanding democracy in a far more capacious way than the mere holding of elections and existence of multiple political parties. Article 11 of the second covenant, alone, would expand the idea of democracy to include the right to housing and the right to be free from hunger. As Article 4 notes, the purpose of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is to promote \u2018the general welfare in a democratic society\u2019. Democracy here is used with the broadest understanding, extending far beyond simple electoralism. And even with regard to electoralism, there is scant concern in the Freedom House index for the high rates of abstention<\/a> across liberal democracies and for the collapse<\/a> of a vibrant media culture to hold political parties and leaders to account.<\/p>\n

But then, what do those behind such indices care? They think themselves masters of the universe. The reactions to the ICC indictment from the United States and Germany \u2013 the two countries with the largest<\/a> arms transfers to Israel during this genocide \u2013 have been expected, but nonetheless shocking. Biden\u2019s cavalier reaction confirms that the United States either does not understand or does not care about the gravity of its callousness and that the United States fails to grasp that its rejection of the ICC warrants is the final nail in the coffin of the US\u2019s \u2018rules-based international order<\/a>\u2019. On the issue of callousness: ahead of the 2024 US presidential election the Biden administration said<\/a> that Israel had to allow aid into Gaza within thirty days or it would face a weapons\u2019 freeze, but this deadline came and went without much concern. The \u2018rules-based international order\u2019 was always a bit of a farce. In 2002, during the US-driven War on Terror, the US Congress debated the possibility that a US soldier or CIA agent could be charged with a war crime. To immunise that soldier or agent, the US Congress passed the American Servicemembers\u2019 Protection Act, which has been widely called the \u2018Hague Invasion Act\u2019. Although the act does not say that the US can invade the Netherlands to free its personnel from the ICC, it does say<\/a> that the US president \u2018is authorised to use all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any person\u2026 who is being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court\u2019. Around the time of the passage of this act, the United States formally withdrew<\/a> from the Rome Statute (1998) that set up the ICC.<\/p>\n

Both US Senators Tom Cotton<\/a> and Lindsey Graham<\/a> have invoked the Hague Invasion Act in response to the ICC\u2019s issuance of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, with Graham going so far as to say that the US Senate should place sanctions, even on allies such as Canada, for having the temerity to suggest that they would uphold the warrants. If the US throws the ICC warrants to the winds, then it has told the world with finality that it does not believe in the rules, or that the rules are only made to discipline others and not itself. It is remarkable to see the list of international treaties that the United States either never signed or never ratified. A few examples are sufficient to make the case about its disregard for a genuine rules-based international order:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (1949, never signed).<\/li>\n
  2. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951, never signed).<\/li>\n
  3. Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960, never signed).<\/li>\n
  4. Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages (1962, signed but never ratified).<\/li>\n
  5. Convention on the Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity (1968, never signed).<\/li>\n
  6. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982, never signed).<\/li>\n
  7. Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (1989, signed but never ratified).<\/li>\n
  8. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006, signed but never ratified).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Even more horrifying are the arms control conventions that the United States has either refused to sign or from which it has unilaterally withdrawn:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty (1972, withdrew in 2002).<\/li>\n
    2. Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty (1987, withdrew in 2019).<\/li>\n
    3. Mine Ban Treaty (1997, never signed).<\/li>\n
    4. Convention on Cluster Munitions (2008, never signed).<\/li>\n
    5. Arms Trade Treaty (2013, signed but withdrew in 2019).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      It is because the US unilaterally left the ABM Treaty and the INF Treaty that the conflict over Ukraine has become so inflamed. Russia had made it clear on several occasions that the absence of any arms control regime regarding mid-range nuclear missiles would pose a threat to its major cities, were its neighbours to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). On 18 November, in a provocative and dangerous move, Biden allowed Ukraine to use intermediate-range missiles to strike Russian territory, which drew a powerful response from Russia against Ukraine. If Russia had decided to fire one of those missiles at a US base in Germany in retaliation, for instance, we might already be in midst of a nuclear winter. The US disregard for the arms control regime is only part of its absolute disregard for any international law, sealed in place by its raised middle finger to the ICC.<\/p>\n

      \n
      \n

      \"\"<\/p>\n

      William Kentridge (South Africa), Drawing from the film Other Faces<\/i>, 2011.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

      In 1982, the South African freedom fighter and poet Mongane Wally Serote (born in 1944), who lived in Botswana and worked with the Medu Art Ensemble (about which we wrote a dossier<\/a> last year), published \u2018Time has run out\u2019 in his epic book The Night Keeps Winking<\/i>. \u2018[M]any of us have gone mad\u2019, he wrote, because \u2018we are human and this is our land\u2019. Serote was writing of South Africa, but we can expand his vision now to Palestine, and indeed to the entire earth. And then Serote writes:<\/p>\n

      Too much blood has been spilled
      \nPlease my countrymen, can someone say a word of wisdom \u2026
      \nAh, we\u2019ve become familiar with horror
      \nthe heart of our country
      \nwhen it makes its pulse
      \nticking time
      \nwounds us
      \nMy countrymen, can someone who understands that it is now too late
      \nwho knows that exploitation and oppression are brains which being
      \ninsane only know violence
      \ncan someone teach us how to mount the wounds and fight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      It is time to revisit the \u2018great wound\u2019, as Frantz Fanon wrote<\/a> in 1959, to ride the wound and fight.<\/p>\n

      Earlier this year, Serote wrote a poem<\/a> for Palestine, part of which I reproduce for the International Day in Solidarity with Palestine (29 November); for this day, we at Tricontinental are organising an exhibition featuring the artwork of Palestinian artist Ibraheem Mohana and twenty children who he has been teaching art to in Gaza in the midst of Israel\u2019s genocide.<\/p>\n

      We hear in our eyes the sounds of the siren and of the explosion
      \nAs it blasts our eye and hearing
      \nand the red fire
      \nflares its coming in the air with the power of a storm
      \nThe red-hot fire holds human flesh in its red-hot dance
      \nIt was preceded by a thick black smoke
      \nWhich bellows and rages
      \nOn
      \nOh
      \nHuman race<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      And then it ends\u2026<\/p>\n

      Ah Palestine!
      \nBe.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      _______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

      \"\"<\/a> Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at<\/em> Globetrotter. He is the director of <\/em>Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research<\/em><\/a> and a senior non-resident fellow at <\/em>Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies<\/em><\/a>, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including <\/em>The Darker Nations<\/a> and <\/em>The Poorer Nations<\/a>. His latest book is <\/em>Washington Bullets<\/a>, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Go to Original \u2013 thetricontinental.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      28 Nov 2024 – As the ICC finally issues arrest warrants for Israeli leaders Netanyahu and Gallant, the US confirms it has no regard for international law or a genuine rules-based order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":281617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[867,1854,1199,87,865,2395,88,475,427,2159,70,965,481,1025,3367],"class_list":["post-281616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-anglo-america","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-ethnic-cleansing","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-international-criminal-court-icc","tag-israel","tag-netanyahu","tag-palestine","tag-rogue-states","tag-usa","tag-war-crimes","tag-warfare","tag-west-bank","tag-yoav-gallant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281616"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281620,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281616\/revisions\/281620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}