Why doesn’t US admit ICC’s arrest warrants for Netanyahu?
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TEHRAN, May 26 :– The US has rejected the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to arrest Netanyahu and has sought to sanction the Hague-based tribunal, which has previously welcomed the court’s decision to detain Russia’s Putin.
The ongoing war in Gaza began in early October 2023 in response to a retaliatory operation staged by Gaza’s resistance groups.
The onslaught has claimed the lives of at least 35,562 people across the besieged coastal sliver and driven around 80% of the territory’s population of 2.3 million from their homes.
Since the onset of the war, Washington has equipped Tel Aviv with thousands of tons of lethal military aid.
It has also struck down several United Nations Security Council resolutions that have called for the implementation of an immediate ceasefire in the brutal military onslaught.
The ICC is the first permanent global court to hear genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and invasion crimes, headquartered in The Hague, The Netherlands, an influential legal body that the United States always accepts or rejects its verdicts by weighing its interest.
On May 20, after months of gathering evidence, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu and his colleague Yoav Gallant.
Speaking of the Israeli actions, Khan said in a statement that “the effects of the use of starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza are acute, visible and widely known. … They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children, and women.”
Netanyahu on Tuesday denied the allegation from an ICC prosecutor that he was starving Palestinians in Gaza as a method of war, arguing the ICC arrest warrant was based on “a pack of lies.”
On CNN, Netanyahu labeled ICC prosecutor Karim Khan a “rogue prosecutor”.
President Joe Biden declared on Thursday that the United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC. This statement came after the ICC’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Israeli Netanyahu and his fellow worker Yoav Gallant.
“We’ve made our position clear on the ICC. We don’t recognize their jurisdiction, ICC, or the way it’s being exercised. We don’t think there’s an equivalence between what Israel did and what Hamas did,” Biden stated during a joint press conference with Kenyan President William Ruto.
“Tonight, I’m happy to announce something else to you: that we will soon be hosting Prime Minister Netanyahu at the Capitol for a joint session of Congress,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday during a speech marking Israel’s independence, hosted by the Israeli Embassy.
“This will be a timely and, I think, a very strong show of support to the Israeli government in their time of greatest need,” Johnson added.
It is unclear when the address will take place. This week, Johnson urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to sign a letter inviting Netanyahu to deliver an address, or he said that the House of Representatives would proceed with inviting Netanyahu just to the House.
Senator Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday that he would boycott an address by Netanyahu to Congress, citing the ongoing humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where at least 35,800 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7.
“So why you would invite somebody who has done such horrific things to the Palestinian people is something that I think is a very bad idea,” Sanders added.
The Turkish justice minister Yilmaz Tunc has praised prosecutor Karim Khan for seeking arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and his defense minister, describing the move as “delayed but positive.”
It is easy to see why US officials reacted strongly to Netanyahu’s arrest. They were horrified as officials from Ireland, Spain, and Norway have recently stated they have planned to recognize the state of Palestine.
The US denies legitimacy to the International Criminal Court and threatens to subject it to sanctions, but does not hesitate to use the organization against people that Washington considers its enemies, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said.
He was commenting on a statement by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who said that the US will continue to support the ICC concerning the situation in Ukraine, despite the court’s seeking to issue an arrest warrant for the Israeli regime’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This is yet another example of double standards and a parade of American hypocrisy. The US denies the legitimacy of the ICC and threatens this organization with sanctions when it comes to the interests of Washington itself and its allies. However, they shamelessly use this pseudo-legal instrument against those they consider enemies,” Antonov was quoted as saying in a statement posted to the embassy’s Telegram channel.
As a so-called human rights defender, the US has used his veto to support the Zionist regime 50 times to date. The country has given Tel Aviv the green light to continue genocide during Biden’s presidency by vetoing four resolutions.
The warrant is believed to be one of the first charges against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes in the Gaza Strip, part of a global effort to hold the Israeli individual accountable for atrocities committed in occupied Palestine.
A panel of judges in the court will now consider the application for the arrest warrants.
The court has been investigating Israel’s actions in the occupied territories for the past three years – and more recently the brutal war in the Gaza Strip as well.
(MNA)