Arrest Netanyahu!
Netanyahu is a genocidal war criminal and his visit to Washington D.C. should usher in a cultural reckoning for the United States.
Never Again is happening right now and Benjamin Netanyahu is criminally responsible for it.
In early July, a panel of United Nations appointed experts concluded that;
“there is no doubt that famine has spread from northern Gaza into central and southern Gaza…” Their statement…condemned "Israel's intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people" (Reuters)
The International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan requested an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu and the United States should comply with that request. The ICC arrest warrant application states;
“On the basis of evidence collected and examined by my Office, I have reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin NETANYAHU, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav GALLANT, the Minister of Defence of Israel, bear criminal responsibility for the following war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from at least 8 October 2023:
Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare…
Willfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health…or cruel treatment as a war crime…
Willful killing…or Murder as a war crime…
Intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime…
Extermination and/or murder…including in the context of deaths caused by starvation, as a crime against humanity;
Persecution as a crime against humanity…
Other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity…” (ICC)
The Israeli government’s planned use of starvation as a method of warfare against civilians was announced in October by Yoav Gallant;
Israel was able to enact that siege just days after the October 7th Hamas attack because Israel maintained an air, land, and sea blockade of Gaza since 2007 with control of nearly everything that entered the territory (Amnesty International). For the last few months, Israel has been slowly starving the Palestinians in Gaza by allowing in significantly less aid than the population needs to survive. In a tacit acknowledgement that Israel has been in total control of the blockade causing the famine in Gaza, Netanyahu tweeted;
Now that famine is already occurring and Polio has been detected in the water of Gaza, we can be sure that the deaths of many more Palestinians is imminent (Reuters). On July 5th, the Lancet Medical Journal released a correspondence article called “Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential” in which they stated;
“Applying a conservative estimate…it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza….this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.” (Lancet)
Sadly, the American government has been complicit in Israel’s use of starvation as a method of warfare against civilians. Pro-genocide politicians offer the justification that the Hamas attacks of October 7th gave Israel carte blanche to commit whatever war crimes they’d like. Even Joe Biden knowingly lied about Israel’s use of starvation as a method of warfare in order to facilitate that war crime. The NSM-20 report issued by his administration assessed Israel’s compliance with the laws of war throughout this war. That report falsely stated that Israel is not blocking humanitarian assistance, but according to Stacy Gilbert a former State Department official with 20 years of experience who resigned in protest of the NSM-20;
“That is not the view of subject matter experts at the State Department, at USAID, nor among the humanitarian community, and that was…absolutely known to the administration for a very long time.” (Democracy Now)
Joe Biden’s lie is incredibly significant because the truth disqualifies Israel from receiving US military and financial assistance, as Bernie Sanders pointed out;
“The Foreign Assistance Act makes clear; no US assistance may be provided to any country that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian aid.”
So the fact of the matter is that Joe Biden was caught in a lie. Biden intentionally lied about Israel’s use of starvation as a method of warfare in order to exempt Israel from enforcement of the Foreign Assistance Act.
Numerous former Biden Administration officials also resigned in protest to Biden’s complicity in war crimes and wrote an open letter to his administration asking him to stop lying and instead enforce the law;
“It is abundantly clear that the Administration is currently willfully violating multiple U.S. laws and attempting to deny or distort facts, use loopholes, or manipulate processes to ensure a continuous flow of lethal weapons to Israel. As practically every credible and independent international human rights organization has identified, there have been clear gross violations of human rights by units of the Israeli security forces, dating back well before 2023, that should compel ineligibility determinations under the Leahy Laws. As multiple credible humanitarian aid organizations have identified, Israel has also, and continues to, arbitrarily obstruct U.S.-funded humanitarian assistance, which should trigger a suspension of security assistance under Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act. A government that acts above, or around, the laws set by elected legislatures is not a government that is faithful to the Constitution, or to its commitments to the people of these United States” (Service in Dissent)
Although Joe Biden seemed to only drop out of the race for President due to concerns over his age-related electability, the true nail-in-the-coffin of his re-election was the uncommitted vote. Hundreds of thousands of uncommitted voters participated in the Democratic Primary to protest Biden aiding and abetting a genocide, including over 100,000 in Michigan alone (The Nation). Those uncommitted protest voters closed off any shot he had at winning in November. Joe Biden tried to buy a genocide with political capital he did not actually have and he paid the price for it. He will now rightfully be remembered for all of history as Genocide Joe and that will be his lasting legacy (AJ). His illegal and immoral support for Netanyahu’s war crimes cost him his shot at the White House in 2024. Now, Democrats risk losing the House and Senate too over their own complicity.
The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to give a speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday July 24th. Numerous Democrats including Kamala Harris have publicly stated that they will not attend his speech, “However she is expected to meet with Netanyahu separately during his visit” (NBC). Unfortunately, true opposition to Israel’s ongoing genocide requires much more than a Mean Girls-styled boycott of one speech absent any real ramifications. Instead of the pure political theater of not attending Netanyahu’s speech just to later show support behind closed doors, Democrats should instead stand united against Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians by endorsing the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and advocating for his arrest while in the United States. Netanyahu should not be allowed to leave the United States unless its in handcuffs on his way to the Hague for trial over war crimes.
Many Democrats rightfully fear for their own political future if they take any stand against Israel. The Israel Lobby is by far America’s biggest foreign election interference threat as evidenced by pro-Israel groups spending over “$100m this year against congressional candidates, primarily Democrats, and members of Congress critical of Israel” (Guardian). Democrats have long been desperately fighting against Republicans for the support of the Israel Lobby. But aside from Thomas Massie, essentially the entire GOP is bought and owned by the Israel Lobby and has an AIPAC babysitter overseeing their policy and rhetoric towards Israel (The Hill). The reality is, no amount of Democrats compromising our own anti-genocide values will ever truly satisfy the Israel Lobby; instead, democrats also need to also call for campaign finance reform to stop foreign election interference from groups like AIPAC. As long as the government of Israel can spend hundreds of millions of dollars through political action committees in America to buy an unwavering commitment to Israel from our elected representatives, corruption will always beat out morality. It will take something like Bernie Sander’s Saving American Democracy Constitutional Amendment (Bernie Sanders) to truly fix our corrupt political system, and its about time Democrats actually fought for our democracy in more than just rhetoric.