The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. President Biden has described the ICC’s act as “outrageous.” Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has invited Netaynahu to visit, showing his contempt for the ICC’s order to arrest him. Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, has also said he would “welcome” Netanyahu to Italy. Another half-dozen countries have announced their rejection of the ICC’s decision. But, argues international relations professor Eytan Gilboa, that is not sufficient. Israel has to conduct a wide-ranging campaign to delegitimize the hopelessly biased ICC. More on his action plan — political, economic, and diplomatic — can be found here: “How Israel can fight back against ICC’s arrest warrants for its leaders – opinion,” by Eytan Gilboa, Jerusalem Post, November 26, 2024:
…Israel should mount a worldwide aggressive delegitimization campaign against the ICC and its flawed practices. The appropriate model is the struggle against the 1975 UN resolution that equated Zionism with racism. Israel damaged the reputation of the UN, until it abolished the infamous resolution in 1991.
Necessary actions
First, Israel should produce a legal document that will refute every claim the prosecutor made, and the dubious and false “evidence” on which he relied.
Second, based on this document, Israel should persuade states to suspend their membership in the Rome Statute that established the ICC, thereby exempting them from the obligation to detain Israelis; or alternatively, to announce, as Hungary did, that they had no intention of enforcing the orders.
Third, coordinate with the incoming Trump administration to impose harsh personal sanctions against the ICC’s prosecutor, aides, and judges….
Since there is a reasonable possibility that the ICC has already issued secret arrest warrants for senior Israeli government officials or military officers, the Knesset should enact a law like the August 2002 “American Service-Members’ Protection Act,” which authorizes the US president to use “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any US or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court.”
This authorization was nicknamed “The Hague Invasion Act,” because it authorizes the use of force, such as an invasion of The Hague where the ICC is located. Subsection (b) of the act specifies that this authority shall extend to American allies including Israel.
By enacting its own similar law, Israel will declare that it has no intention of abandoning Israeli elected and appointed officials or military officers should they be arrested anywhere in the world. A robust combination of all the aforementioned tools is likely to create heavy pressure on the ICC to revoke its unfounded and outrageous arrest warrants.
Professor Gilboa wants Israel to engage in a full-court press, aided by its ally the United States, against the ICC, whose decision on arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant he rightly describes as “absurd, ridiculous, and baseless.” He notes that a previous campaign to delegitimize the UN for its “Zionism is racism” resolution in 1975 led, in 1991, to that body voting to abolish the original resolution. Now Israel should produce an exhaustive document refuting every claim made by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Kahn, and the “dubious evidence” on which he relied. This document should be made available to all countries, not just those that are subject to the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Based on this document, Israel — with the diplomatic backing of the United States — should attempt to “persuade states to suspend their membership in the Rome Statute that established the ICC, thereby exempting them from the obligation to detain Israelis; or alternatively, to announce, as Hungary did, that they had no intention of enforcing the orders.”
Finally, Israel should, in collaboration with the incoming, most-sympathetic-to-Israel Trump administration, work to impose sanctions on the prosecutor Karim Khan, aides, and judges of the ICC. There must be a steep price paid by the ICC for its “absurd and baseless” decision.
Frank Anderson says
Israel hse no chance of “persuading” enough members to discredit the ICC. That is about as likely as persuading Nazi courts to reform and actually afford rights to accused people.
Israel ratified the Treaty of London 1945 when it joined the UN. That treaty established war crimes and mechanisms plural for enforcement. Hamas Hezbollah and Iran are committing war crimes against Israel. By “aiding, abetting, counseling and acting in furtherance” of those war crimes, the ICC is equally guilty of them and should be prosecuted IN ISRAEL. The defense of “superior orders” was abrogated by the 1945 treaty making every person involved in the ICC party of a criminal conspiracy JUST LIKE the entire Nazi SS was prosecuted and convicted of being a criminal conspiracy following WWII. Take a few minutes to read 18 United States Code Section 2 and the Case from the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals United States v. Dawson, 576 F.2d 656 (1978), both available for free online.
James Lincoln says
Thanks for your fact-based replies, Frank.
Very best wishes.
Frank Anderson says
One of the research papers I wrote while in accounting school (my third college visit) is titled The Nuremberg Rule in the Workplace. It considers the effect of the abrogation of the defense of superior orders by the Treaty of London. The paper was reviewed and supported by a number of lawyers and published. The legal reasoning is capable of support and could be used with little concern for Rule 11 sanctions in a US court. One of my reviewers was also one of my law professors who served 2 terms as US Attorney. He had strong praise for my work. Always best wishes to you. Frank
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Netanyahu is not the first. The ICC had also put out an arrest warrant for President Putin, but he has freely visited countries that he knows won’t dare arrest him or turn him over to the ICC
The ICC needs to be wound up. I was watching Alan Dershowitz’ Dershow a day or 2 ago, and he revealed that an ICC jail was like a 5 star accommodation for international criminals. He described how he was engaged by one of the arrested Yugoslav war criminals, and when he visited him in jail, it was like that guy had his own luxury suite. From what he described, I’d love to be arrested by the ICC & incarcerated in such a prison
JimJFox says
ICC must go, by any means possible. Sanctions on such a corrupt organisation are totally inadequate.The same is true for the UN,too.
Ben says
Beepers & walkie talkies for ICC officials.
Skeptiker says
Sehr gut.
Mike says
Don’t Fear the Beeper (with apologies to BOC who wrote “Don’t Fear the Reaper”)
libertyORdeath says
This is just another example of UN-backed anti-White racism.
The ICC is a joke made up of countries that have no business pushing their ludicrous “legal opinions” on the civilized nations that reject the obvious incompetence and vicious bias of this laughable excuse for an international legal entity.
No country has the right to exert legal pressure on a sovereign foreign nation. This is ESPECIALLY true of lawless third-world psuedo-states that exist for no other reason than European guilt and weakness. South Africa for example should work on the 25 THOUSAND plus murders within their own borders before they dare to make baseless and racist accusations against anyone.
The ICC, UNRWA, UNHCR and the entire UN globalist structure MUST be dismantled entirely to ensure the sovereignty and liberty of the entire world. There is no other option left.
Skeptiker says
100 pro
Peter Dale says
Another possible bit of persuasion: namely, Trump should indicate that any country paying the slightest attention to the diktats of the ICC will face severe sanctions.
Brenrod says
For threatening to take hostages all the ICC employees should b subject to arrest, same with UNRWA for assisting terrorists.