ICC Issues Arrest Warrants For Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu And Yoav Gallant

Court also issues warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, six months after request by prosecutor Karim Khan

By Sondos Asem and Dania Akkad, Middle East Eye

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, six months after chief prosecutor Karim Khan requested them.

When the election results came in on November 4th, I felt a pain in the pit of my stomach, similar to what I experienced when Ronald Reagan rode to power in 1980, or with George W. Bush’s tainted victory over Al Gore in 2000. After some grieving, the first question that came to my mind was: What will a Trump presidency mean for the movements for peace and social justice? I offer what follows as just one person’s view, knowing that a genuine strategy for coping in this new era will have to be a distinctly collective process.

As a start, history offers some inspiration. On issues of war and peace, the trajectory of the Reagan administration suggests how surprising hope can prove to be. The man who joked that “we begin bombing [Russia] in five minutes,” and hired a Pentagon official who told journalist Robert Scheer that America would survive a nuclear war if it had “enough shovels” to build makeshift shelters, ended up claiming that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” He even came tantalizingly close to an agreement with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to abolish nuclear weapons altogether.

Press statement by Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, Belgium

It is the first instance in the court’s 22-year history it has issued arrest warrants for western-allied senior officials.

The Hague-based court also issued a warrant for Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the Hamas military chief better known as Mohammed Deif, despite Israeli claims that he was killed in Gaza.

The Israelis and Deif are accused of a range of war crimes and crimes against humanity over atrocities committed since 7 October last year.

In its statement, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I, a panel of three judges, said it has rejected appeals by Israel challenging its jurisdiction.

The chamber said the arrest warrants are classified as “secret” but that it has decided to release them because “conduct similar to that addressed in the warrant of arrest appears to be ongoing”, referring to Israel’s ongoing onslaught on Gaza and the continued detention of Israeli captives by Hamas.