Summary
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas officials, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and during the October 2023 attacks.
The court alleges actions like depriving Gaza civilians of essential resources.
Israel and the U.S., non-members of the ICC, reject the warrants, with Netanyahu calling them antisemitic.
Hamas also criticized the decision.
The practical enforcement of these warrants remains uncertain, as the ICC lacks authority to compel arrests.
Those warrants aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, but it’s still nice to see official bodies outside the US calling Netanyahu what he is.
Those warrants are worth a lot. Not enough to put them behind bars, but still a lot!
These warrants absolutely matter in terms of being a trumo card in several legal issues relating to EU-Israel relations.
It’s a nice thought. I won’t hold my breath expecting any real consequences for Israel, though.
The saddest thing is that if they do take action, it will be the lowest bar possible of accountability. They’ll for example ban products from illegal settlements and then let Israel redurect them anyways.
Not exactly. The ratifying countries are bound by contract to arrest them. Plus It’s a serious issue not to do it, because this would delegitimize the ICC as an institution, which is not in the interest of most ratifying countries. So it essentially boils down to a choice between losing the court as a valuable weapon against war criminals or bad relations with Israel.
What happens after an arrest is another matter and I think that is where the real pressure would happen
“Bound by contract”, lol…
Are you familiar with Donald Trump?
The US isn’t part of the ICC because we commit too many war crimes.
Not really, if a group of spies got together and kidnapped him to a country that respects the ICC he would be arrested. Just like this