Vivian Bercovici
National Post, Nov. 25, 2024
“Canada is an outlier among democracies.”
In May, 2024, International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, K.C., abruptly cancelled a planned trip to Israel. Khan and ICC staff were meant to meet with Israeli officials in government, the military and NGO sectors.
Instead, on the same day he cancelled, Khan appeared before a panel of ICC judges asking them to consider issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas senior leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif.
It was no secret that Khan had long been mulling the possibility of slapping arrest warrants on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That he did so while appearing to be engaged in working with Israel and the United States, was malevolent and unprofessional.
Before asking a panel of ICC judges to consider issuing the warrants, Khan had a threshold legal and ethical duty. It was incumbent on him to provide evidence to the court that it had jurisdiction over the matter and that there was evidence to support the allegations of crimes having been committed against humanity.… [To read the full article, click here]