The UN Court addressing disputes between nations is the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where a case has been brought by South Africa against Israel in relation to the Gaza conflict and genocide. An interim ruling by the Court on May 24th ordered Israel to halt its Rafah (a southern Gaza city) offensive . So far Israel has not complied and the bombing (and killing) continues.
The other UN court involved with the Gaza problem is the International Criminal Court (ICC). There its Edinburgh-born British chief prosecutor , who is also King’s Counsel, has requested arrest warrants for two Israeli and three Hamas leaders, who in the view of a panel of experts, have committed crimes within the ICC’s jurisdiction.
An ICC three-judge panel is reviewing the request and if it is granted, any state of the 124 that are party to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, will be obliged to arrest the indicted individuals and surrender them to the ICC for trial. Under these circumstances travel for these principals would become almost impossible for fear of arrest. Small wonder that Bibi Netanyahu is afraid of the course of events despite the bluster.
The main objection of many critics is the equivalence implied in the chief prosecutor’s request between duly elected leaders like Netanyahu and unelected Hamas officials and it is tied with the additional claim of Hamas being a terrorist organization.
Bibi Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant the Israeli Defense Minister are accused of the war crimes of starving civilians, willful killings of civilians through attacks directed at them, all of which are crimes under the Rome Statute that established the ICC. And these are not subject to any statute of limitations of a prescribed period of time.
In addition, the Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyah are charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes commencing October 7 when Hamas invaded Israel. The Hamas operatives under their orders who infiltrated on October 7, 2023 are accused of murder, rape and other sexual violence plus acts of torture and other cruel treatment of hostages during captivity.
While the pre-trial panel continues its review of the arrest warrants application, the chief prosecutor’s office continues to be busy gathering more evidence. The latter can also mean there may be more indictments.
Should the arrest warrants be issued, they would remove a veil of impunity that elected leaders tend to assume shields them.
Humanitarian war itself at first blush appears to be an oxymoron. Why the world has not developed an alternative to war is probably because the most powerful cherish it as a tool assisting their dominance.
For example, the US is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC because the treaty has never been ratified by the senate. Bill Clinton signed it. But there it languished until George W. Bush notified the UN Secretary General that the US did not intend to ratify it and therefore had no obligation toward it.
When the US boasts that it is a nation of laws, it appears, in fact, to mean its own laws, not international laws that might hold it to account. It doesn’t have to; it is the most powerful country on earth.