The Rules-Based International Order
The ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders as well as Hamas leaders are totally justified. Opposition to only one set of those warrants is hypocritical. All war criminals should be held accountable!
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for leaders of Israel and leaders of Hamas alleging that they are all responsible for war crimes. Hamas leaders have been charged for “the attacks of Oct. 7, including murder, hostage-taking and torture. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is charged directly for using ‘starvation of civilians as a method of warfare’ and ‘intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population’” (Yahoo). Hypocritically, while there is near universal support for the justified charges against Hamas leaders there is also fierce opposition to the justified arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. President Biden, who is complicit in Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza, called the charges against Israeli leaders “outrageous.” Biden went on to claim that there is no moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas so it was wrong for the ICC to create one with these charges, a false statement which Bernie Sanders clarified did not actually happen;
“But that is not what the ICC has done. In fact, the ICC prosecutor has looked at what each of these leaders has done – looked at their actions – and then compared those actions to established standards of international law. In other words, the ICC is not making some claim of equivalence, as some have charged, but is in fact holding both sides in this current war to the same standard.” -Bernie Sanders
Regardless, there is a self-evident moral equivalence; both Israeli and Palestinian leaders are guilty of war crimes and should be held accountable. Unfortunately, American hypocrisy is blatant with a clear ‘rules for thee but not for me’ attitude towards international law. Ted Cruz called for “catastrophic consequences and sanctions” against the ICC prosecutor, ICC staff, and the families of ICC employees for daring to issue those arrest warrants. American members of Congress even threatened military force against the ICC to liberate Israeli war criminals. In a letter over a dozen Congressmembers sent to the ICC, they proclaimed; “Target Israel and we will target you…you have been warned” (Zeteo). Some American lawmakers have even taken the time to introduce legislation which would extend US veteran benefits to members of the Israeli Defense Force. And a top diplomat told the ICC Prosecutor that the court was exclusively designed for Africa and thugs like Putin. But little of the world is falling for the desperate attempts to justify why Israel should be treated as above international law, which is an obvious double standard. American representatives have long promoted a rules-based order where even world leaders are held accountable for war crimes, yet our representatives are betraying that ideal right now.
Although US narratives make it appear otherwise, the accusations against Israeli leaders are actually stronger than they are against Hamas leaders. Israel has been engaged in the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza resulting in the decimation of Palestinian civil society. Netanyahu frequently and proudly shares those indiscriminate bombing campaigns on social media; the Israeli Defense Force even runs social media channels depicting their violations of international law. The destruction of Palestinian life has been extensive as Bernie Sanders explains here;
But most importantly, the ICC specifically charged Israeli leaders with intentionally starving civilians. Israeli leaders officially announced their use of starvation as a method of warfare in October; “’We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza,’ Gallant said. ‘There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything will be closed.’” Now months after the Israeli government officially announced a siege on Gaza, the United States Secretary of State said “100%” of the population of Gaza is facing severe acute food insecurity. American members of Congress confirmed that children have been dying from starvation as a direct result of Israel’s officially declared siege of Gaza;
World Food Program officials have been warning of a full-blown famine which the UN head confirmed while pointing out that famine is entirely “man-made.” Within the United States, Israel has long been exempted from oversight or enforcement of human rights conditions on the aid we send. The Israel Lobby spent decades buying the unconditional backing of the American government, and American politicians have been happy to sell out our principles in exchange for their campaign donations. Now after decades of Israel being treated as above US law, our politicians are struggling to grapple with the idea of Israeli war criminals ever being held accountable for war crimes. There is a consensus that a famine is occurring in Gaza, and there are clear Israeli government statements proving their intentional use of starvation as a method of warfare. Netanyahu even tasked an advisor with creating a plan to “thin” the population of Gaza “to a minimum,” which he seemed to mean literally. The World Food Program director Cindy McCain revealed that children and adults are actively wasting into the size of skeletons before dying from prolonged hunger;
"Imagine a child wasting into the size of a skeleton - and of course passing from it - and an adult doing the same thing. That's what we're seeing on the ground…I'm having to make the decision...about taking food from the hungry and giving it to the starving" -Cindy McCain
Internal Israeli government documents also exposed; “The Israeli Ministry of Intelligence…recommending the forcible and permanent transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinian residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula” (+972 Magazine). After October 7th, Israeli fundamentalists jumped on the opportunity to expel Palestinians from Gaza advocating to seize the moment because it was unclear if such an opportunity like this would ever arise again (Daily Beast). Since it is undeniable that Israeli leaders committed the war crimes they have been charged with at least, the three main arguments proffered in defense of Israeli leaders are;
1. that the ICC isn’t respecting the principle of complementarity; "The principle of complementarity should be honored, allowing a nation’s legal system to act first,"
2. that Israel is not a signatory of the ICC and Palestine isn’t a state so the court has no jurisdiction, “We do not believe the ICC has jurisdiction over either of the parties in this case because the Palestinian people do not represent a state, and that includes the leaders of Hamas.” (US State Department)
3. and that these charges make a moral equivalence between an evil terrorist organization attacking civilians and a democratically elected state protecting its sovereignty against existential threats (Netanyahu).
All of these challenges to the ICC arrest warrants are meritless.
First, Israel does not have a trustworthy legal system. Israel is an apartheid state; that is the global consensus of the world’s leading human rights organizations. The UN has warned for years that Israeli “impunity” for crimes against Palestinians contributes significantly to the recurring cycles of violence. In a 2022 UN organized report on the conflict,
“The Commission identified several overarching issues that lay at the core of most recommendations, including Israel’s failure to uphold the laws and customs of war, including those of belligerent occupation, violations and abuses of individual and collective rights, and a lack of accountability.” -UN OHCHR
Rather than continuing to allow an obviously broken Israeli legal system to continue enabling impunity, it is essential that international bodies step in and provide the accountability which has been lacking.
Second, aside from the Israeli apartheid occupation, the biggest obstacle to full Palestinian statehood is the United States’ abuse of our veto power at the United Nations Security Council. In April, 12 Security Council members voted in favor of a resolution calling for a General Assembly vote on recognizing Palestinian statehood; since over 140 members of the General Assembly already recognize Palestinian statehood, that vote very likely would’ve succeeded. Unfortunately, the United States vetoed the Security Council resolution to prevent the UN General Assembly from even voting on accepting Palestine as a state (AP). The General Assembly has since renewed their calls for the Security Council to allow Palestinian statehood, but the United States has committed to blocking any future attempts. So, at the same time the United States is blocking Palestinian statehood, the US State Department is also arguing that the ICC has no jurisdiction in the conflict because Palestinians don’t have a state. The United States unconvincingly claims to support Palestinian statehood, but only if that state comes through direct negotiations with Israel knowing that Israeli leaders like Netanyahu have been unequivocal that they refuse to ever enable Palestinian statehood. But in 2012 Palestinians did have their UN membership transition to “a non-member observer state” granting Palestine the ability to become a signatory of the International Criminal Court, which it did in 2015. As Palestine is a member of the ICC, the court clearly has jurisdiction over this current conflict.
And third, although Democratically elected leaders can also commit war crimes, Israel “is not a democracy” according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. The United Nations has repeatedly found that the apartheid state of Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian territory. So, the ICC issued arrest warrants for the Hamas terrorist leaders as well as the leaders of the apartheid state of Israel. Since both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to self-defense, we need to distinguish between justified versus unjustified attacks. Netanyahu came into power as an opposition leader to the peace process which would’ve facilitated Palestinian statehood. Netanyahu strongly opposed that possibility so he encouraged Israeli domestic extremists to assassinate his rival so he could take power and destroy the prospect of peace.
Since Netanyahu has been in power, he has consistently refused to accept any prospect of Palestinian sovereignty. From the Great March of Return to the BDS movement, Israel worked to put down any non-violent Palestinian appeals for political reform. Obviously, “those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable,” so the October 7th attack was the inevitable outcome of Netanyahu’s approach to the conflict. Hamas did have the inalienable right to self-defense against the Israeli military illegally occupying Palestinian territory. Hamas attacks on the IDF on October 7th were likely justified, but the leaders of Hamas should absolutely be held accountable for the attacks on civilians they oversaw. Reportedly, Hamas did not know in advance about the music festival where most of the civilians died when they launched their attacks. But civilians lived in the illegal settlements the IDF protected, and even if Hamas did not know about the music festival, hundreds of civilians still died in the attack. Israelis including children and the elderly were taken hostage and some raped. Hamas leaders need to be held accountable for taking hostages, the use of rape, and the use of torture.
Alternatively, before October 7th the leaders of Israel were guilty of the crimes of “forcible transfer, administrative detention, torture, and unlawful killings, in both Israel and the OPT” (Amnesty). In the effort to maintain their domination, Israeli “authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity” (HRW). Then since the October 7th attack, Israeli leaders announced their collective punishment of Gaza through the use of starvation as a method of warfare. There is absolutely no legitimate claim to self-defense for the crime of starving 2.3 million civilians to death. Israeli leaders did not have the right to illegally occupy Palestinian territory nor maintain an apartheid system before the attack. Israeli leaders also did not have the right to attack all civilians in Gaza in response to the October 7th terrorist attacks. Israeli whistleblowers have also exposed widespread torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war in Israeli custody (CNN). It is clear beyond any reasonable doubt that Israeli leaders including Netanyahu & Gallant have directed military attacks against civilians. The ICC arrest warrants are totally justified. It would actually be morally outrageous for Israeli leaders to not be arrested for war crimes they’ve clearly committed. Israel’s use of starvation as weapon of war against civilians is clear beyond any reasonable doubt, so America should endorse the ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. In a truly just world, all war criminals would be held accountable for war crimes; even world leaders.
The United States of America is still the world’s most powerful country, and we are at an inflection point in world history. Will we allow our international rules-based order to fully devolve into illegitimacy, or will we lead by example and truly live up to the ideals we’ve espoused for so long? Lindsey Graham recently opined, “we must not forget…the ICC threatened to bring action against American forces in Afghanistan” as an argument for why we should oppose the ICC arrest warrants for Israel (X). Let’s not forget, Bush and Cheney proudly bragged about their approval of the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or torture for short; “Hundreds of people were held…for years without charge and subjected to torture…being waterboarded, deprived of sleep, subjected to constant blasting music and freezing temperatures, or forced into stress positions” (Amnesty). In a shocking report on the CIA use of torture, the frequent and unnecessary use of “rectal rehydration” was exposed. So what this means is, without due process, the CIA would kidnap people, illegally keep them prisoner, then stick tubes up their anus and force water up into their bodies for hours at a time. That would sometimes even continue till death, all in the failed attempt to extract information about terrorism. There is a movie I recommend called The Mauritanian Man depicting the gruesome treatment and conditions prisoners were subjected to. It is truly sickening that still to this day “No US government officials have been held accountable for creating, authorizing, or implementing the CIA’s secret detention and torture programs” (HRW). Instead of abiding by international laws of war, the United States exposed our hypocrisy in the war on terror through The Hauge Invasion Act which promised US military force to liberate any American charged by the ICC with war crimes. George Bush and Dick Cheney are war criminals responsible for nearly 5 million deaths including millions of civilians on top of their use of torture. America and Israel should end our double standards for military conduct. I for one would absolutely love for the United States to become a signatory of the International Criminal Court and allow for the prosecution of American War criminals. Maybe if we practiced what we preach as a nation, then we would have actual standing in the world when we criticize and call for the prosecution of foreign war criminals. Maybe what it will take to actually usher in an international system of law and order where even world leaders are held accountable for war crimes is to start living by that ideal ourselves.
“To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support--to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective--to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak--and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.” -JFK
References;
https://www.972mag.com/intelligence-ministry-gaza-population-transfer/
https://apnews.com/article/un-vote-palestinian-membership-us-veto-8d8ad60d8576b5ab9e70d2f8bf7e2881
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr51/097/2011/en/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68983650
https://www.thedailybeast.com/israeli-extremists-believe-now-is-the-time-to-deploy-their-ethnic-cleansing-plots
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2023-12-12/ty-article/.premium/graphic-videos-and-incitement-how-the-idf-is-misleading-israelis-on-telegram/0000018c-5ab5-df2f-adac-febd01c30000
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CRPT-113srpt288.pdf
https://theintercept.com/2023/12/03/netanyahu-thin-gaza-population/#:~:text=Israeli%20Prime%20Minister%20Benjamin%20Netanyahu,the%20late%20Republican%20billionaire%20Sheldon
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus?ind=Q05
https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary?cycle=All&ind=Q05&recipdetail=S
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-802094#google_vignette
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/americans-serving-in-israeli-army/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-mauritanian-explores-torture-abuse-of-former-prisoner-at-guantanamo-bay
https://www.state.gov/?post_type=state_briefing&%3Bp=92333
https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/historic-speeches/inaugural-address
https://x.com/tedcruz/status/1792581573411283226
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/21/netanyahu-fdr-churchill-icc-00159268
https://philosophicalrebellion.substack.com/p/why-israel-is-considered-an-apartheid
https://philosophicalrebellion.substack.com/p/the-israel-exemption
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0MC1I7/
https://www.unrwa.org/campaign/gaza-great-march-return
https://www.yahoo.com/news/opinion-real-audience-icc-war-175911378.html
