{"id":282555,"date":"2024-12-16T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=282555"},"modified":"2024-12-14T04:47:46","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T04:47:46","slug":"meetings-at-the-hague-reveal-crisis-and-turmoil-as-state-representatives-grapple-with-israeli-warrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/12\/meetings-at-the-hague-reveal-crisis-and-turmoil-as-state-representatives-grapple-with-israeli-warrants\/","title":{"rendered":"Meetings at The Hague Reveal Crisis and Turmoil, as State Representatives Grapple with Israeli Warrants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A speaker at the 19th Session of the ICC\u2019s Assembly of State Parties, on 3 Dec 2019.
(Photo: \u00a9 Coalition for the International Criminal Court)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At a recent convening at The Hague, state representatives to the ICC agonized over the disastrous implications for the international rules-based order should Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant evade accountability for war crimes in Gaza.\u00a0<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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11 Dec 2024 <\/em>– The issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former War Minister, Yoav Gallant, on November 21, not only shocked the Israeli and U.S. establishment but also some of the\u00a0125 State Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who would soon be tasked with executing those warrants, once they\u2019ve been certified and communicated to them by the Court Registry.This past week, in the sprawling chambers of the World Forum Convention Center in The Hague, representatives of those countries gathered for the 23rd Session of the ICC\u2019s Assembly of State Parties (ASP), the representative body that funds, governs, and supervises the implementation of the ICC\u2019s founding treaty. The ASP ultimately ensures that the perpetrators of the most serious international crimes are arrested, tried, and jailed.<\/p>\n

In both the ASP\u2019s official convening and behind the scenes in the halls of The Hague, the topic fresh on everyone\u2019s minds was the question of the ICC warrants against Netanyhau and Gallant and the potentially disastrous implications for the international rules-based order should state parties cave to external pressures seeking to shield the Israeli officials from accountability.<\/p>\n

Among the crimes Netanyahu and Gallant have been charged with, in warrants classified \u2018secret\u2019<\/a>: \u201cthe war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts,\u201d all \u201cpart of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suggesting the crime of genocide \u2013 without using the term \u2013 ICC Pre-Trial Chamber judges cited \u201creasonable grounds to believe [Netanyahu and Gallant] intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Netanyahu, Gallant, and other Israeli officials liable to be charged with grievous crimes feel under the gun, so do the Rome Statute\u2019s 125 State Parties, confronted with the prospect of arresting and surrendering leaders of a purportedly democratic, Western-backed state \u2013 and the beloved ally of the most powerful state in the world.<\/p>\n

Existential threats<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWe are at a turning point in history,\u201d ICC judge and Court President Tomoko Atame told the Assembly<\/a> at the December 2 opening of ASP proceedings in the Dutch administrative capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternational law and international justice are under threat,\u201d Atame said. \u201cThe danger for the Court is existential \u2026 The Court\u2019s future is now entirely in your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed it is. Dozens of foreign ministers and assorted delegates stepped up to the Assembly lectern, calling for an end to double standards and impunity; for the authors of the gravest crimes to be pursued \u201cwithout fear or favor\u201d; for States Parties to cooperate with the Court, first and foremost, by executing arrest warrants.<\/p>\n

The only delegate who referred to Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza in any detail was Namibian Minister of Justice Yvonne Dausab.<\/p>\n

Namibia \u201cwelcomes the recent arrest warrants being issued by the International Criminal Court of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant,\u201d Dausab declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cNamibia is appalled by the death, injury, and suffering of the people of the occupied Palestinian Territory, their indiscriminate displacement, the destruction of infrastructure, including schools and hospitals,\u201d said Dausab. \u201cThe denial of access to humanitarian aid is a total affront to the Geneva Conventions \u2026 Our civilized collective conscience must be horrified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undermined and attacked\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Top of mind for many States Parties at last week\u2019s gathering, and for non-governmental groups who also spoke were the litany of threats, acts of intimidation, and sabotage the ICC has been facing, some of the most brazen from states that have refused to accede to the Rome Statute.<\/p>\n

These threats seem to be coming from multiple directions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite possible to imagine a surgical application of a hypersonic Onyx from a Russian ship in the North Sea on The Hague courthouse,\u201d suggested Russian President Dmitry Medvedev<\/a>, current deputy chair of Russia\u2019s Security Council, in response to the ICC\u2019s arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin, issued by the court in March 2023, \u201cso, judges, look carefully to the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the wake of ICC arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, some American politicians appear willing to join Russia in its assault on the world\u2019s preeminent criminal court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ICC is a kangaroo court and Karim Khan is a deranged fanatic,\u201d Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton declared in a recent X post<\/a>. \u201cWoe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act<\/em> for a reason. Think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an April 24 letter<\/a>, a month prior to ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan\u2019s application for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, Cotton and eleven other Republican Senators warned that \u201dthe United States will not tolerate politicized attacks by the ICC on our allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTarget Israel and we will target you,\u201d the Senators added. \u201cIf you move forward with the measures indicated in the report, we will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associates, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early June, in the wake of Khan\u2019s application for arrest warrants, by a vote of 247-155, the U.S. House approved sanctions on the ICC. Forty-two Democrats voted in favor.<\/p>\n

House Resolution 8282<\/a> awaits approval by the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

U.S. allies soon to be tasked with executing Khan\u2019s warrants against Israeli leaders have also been threatened.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo any ally \u2013 Canada, Britain, Germany, France \u2013 if you try to help the ICC, we are going to sanction you,\u201d South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News in late November (at 7:10 here<\/a>) \u2013 referring to the Hague-based ICC as a Belgian court.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Rome Statute doesn\u2019t apply to Israel or the United States,\u201d Graham declared<\/a> on another occasion, \u201cbecause it wasn\u2019t conceived to come after us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most egregious attempts to thwart ICC prosecution of Israeli leaders appear to have been made by Israel itself: alleged hacking<\/a> of ICC software systems, and thuggish, face-to-face threats<\/a> against former Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.<\/p>\n

Threats against the court could backfire, Australian human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti told the ASP last week, by video link.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpompous posturing of puffed-up politicians\u201d is one thing, said Sidoti. Under Article 70 of the Rome Statute, Sidoti continued, actions that intimidate, corrupt or injure witnesses, court officials and the court itself are prosecutable crimes.<\/p>\n

So are acts that aid and abet Rome Statute crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are killed with American, European bombs!\u201d shouted Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, in a standing-room-only side session of last week\u2019s Assembly, pounding his fist on the table, and calling for accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you want Gaza and Palestine to be the graveyard of international law? The free committed people through the globe cannot be hostage for four, five, six states, who takes, you know, all this international legal system and want to destroy it, want to banish it \u2026 It\u2019s Kafka!\u201d<\/p>\n

Western double standards\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Threats against the ICC by non-Rome State parties are a source of huge concern, delegates to last week\u2019s assembly declared. Much more troubling \u2013 the unwillingness of those who have<\/em> acceded to the court\u2019s founding treaty to fulfill their statutory duty to execute arrest warrants. Contradictory statements abound.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [German] federal government adheres to the law, because no one is above it,\u201d said German Foreign Minister Annalina Baerbock<\/a>, on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 Foreign Ministers in the Italian city of Fiuggi, on November 26.<\/p>\n

Days earlier, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced<\/a> that \u201cdomestic steps\u201d resulting from arrest warrants against Israeli leaders would be \u201ccarefully\u201d examined, adding: \u201cI find it difficult to imagine us making arrests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance will comply with its international obligations,\u201d the French Foreign Ministry stated on November 27<\/a>, stipulating that, as the leader of a non-state party to the Rome Statute, Benjamin Netanyahu enjoyed immunity.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the Lebanon ceasefire deal<\/a> struck just 24 hours earlier \u2013 with France as co-guarantor \u2013 France\u2019s position on Netanyahu\u2019s immunity appeared to be a quid pro quo<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201c[In] accordance with the long-standing friendship between France and Israel,\u201d France\u2019s November 27 communique added, \u201cFrance intends to continue working in close cooperation with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the other Israeli authorities to achieve peace and security for all in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, neither non-Rome State Parties, nor their leaders enjoy immunity.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Official] capacity as a Head of State or Government, a member of a Government or parliament, an elected representative or a government official shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility,\u201d Article 27 of the Statute states.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one, no matter who they are or where they are, must be allowed to escape justice,\u201d Hungary\u2019s Ambassador told the ASP last week \u2013 although Hungary was among the first Rome State Parties, alongside Argentina, to announce that Netanyahu would be welcome to visit.<\/p>\n

Ireland would be less hospitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot claim to care about victims and then invite perpetrators into our house,\u201d Irish Ambassador to the Netherlands, Ann Derwin, told the ASP last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice is not an a la carte menu,\u201d said Derwin. \u201cWe cannot choose to adhere to our obligations under the Rome Statutes when it suits us and ignore them when it does not.\u201d<\/p>\n

True to its status as ICC host state, the Netherlands takes the high road \u2013 perhaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe act on arrest warrants for people who are on Dutch territory,\u201d Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp told the lower chamber of the Dutch Parliament in November.<\/p>\n

Days later, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof (aka \u201cTricky Dick\u201d<\/a>) waffled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are possible scenarios \u2026 in which [Netanyahu] would be able to come to the Netherlands without being arrested,\u201d Schoof told a news conference on the eve of the ASP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not correct,\u201d the Netherlands\u2019 Permanent Representative to the ICC, Henk Cor van der Kwast, told Mondoweiss<\/em>, insisting that Foreign Minister Veldkamp got it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf [Netanyahu] comes, he will be arrested,\u201d van der Kwast said.<\/p>\n

Will international law, or geopolitics, prevail?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sprawled out on a set of stairs at the World Forum Convention Center, in The Hague last week, South Africa\u2019s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Vusi Madonsela, spoke with Mondoweiss<\/em> about the ambiguous commitment to execute arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, and the confidence crisis this has engendered among Rome Statute parties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve listened to some statements being made by countries like France, the UK,\u201d Madonsela told Mondoweiss<\/em>. \u201cWe understand even the Netherlands may be dithering in that direction, that says that they think there is the technical loophole that would allow them not to cooperate with the court by way of arresting and surrendering Prime Minister Netanyahu or former Minister Gallant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll states parties must be willing to put their shoulder [to] the wheel and cooperate with the court, or else the international criminal justice system is going to be undermined,\u201d Madonsela said.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Article 86 of the Rome Statute obliges States Parties to \u201ccooperate fully with the Court,\u201d including by executing arrest warrants \u2013 no ifs, ands, or buts.<\/p>\n

The suggestion that they wouldn\u2019t lies at the heart of the ICC\u2019s crisis of confidence, speakers at last week\u2019s Assembly of State Parties declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can have States Parties that loudly applaud one decision taken by the court while indicating an unwillingness to enforce another,\u201d Australian jurist Chris Sidoti told delegates last week. \u201cThis inconsistency, this hypocrisy, poses a graver threat to international law, international judicial bodies, and the international rule of law than anything else \u2026 I accept that states act in their own interests. I accept that they always have and they always will. But in the past, they have often seen their own interests as being best met through a long term effort to build an international rule of law with well developed law and functioning institutions. Increasingly now, states seem to see their own interests as short term and entirely self-centred. That is the root cause of the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

David Kattenburg is a university science instructor and radio\/web journalist based in Breda, North Brabant, the Netherlands.\u00a0 Author’s Site<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – mondoweiss.net<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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