Stephan Daisley
The Spectator, May 21, 2024
“… it is Israel that is being targeted by the ICC, and Israel that must take the lead in standing up for itself.”
The application for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant is an act of lawfare. In seeking the detention of Israel’s political and military leadership during its war against Hamas, Karim Ahmad Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), is inviting that body to intervene in the conflict. Granting these warrants would require ICC signatory countries such as the UK to arrest the men if they set foot in their territory and hand them over. The likely effect of their arrest would be to cripple Israel’s war effort and throw the country into political chaos. Khan is proposing, in effect, that the ICC prevent the democratically elected government of a sovereign state from defending itself against the terrorist regime that invaded its territory, murdered 1,100 people, raped women and took 250 hostages.
Khan has also issued arrest warrant applications against three senior Hamas leaders. This is objectionable in its implicit drawing of equivalence between murderous terrorists and the democrats fighting them, but there is something more objectionable than that. The applications relating to Hamas leaders are little more than fig leaves.
Terrorist organisations can function pretty well despite arrest warrants. Yahya Sinwar has been living under threat of Israeli assassination since 2017, when he assumed the leadership of Hamas in Gaza, and still he was able to mastermind the 7 October pogrom. Lawfare is a mere inconvenience to terrorists but to democrats it is a grave threat to their ability to lead their country. It is hard to believe this difference does not register with Khan. … [To read the full article, click here]