Key UN committee adopts resolution paving the way for a first-ever treaty on crimes against humanity

FILE - Exterior view of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands, on April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

AP
November 23, 202406:04

The International Criminal Court was established to punish major perpetrators of war crimes

ICC has 124 countries that are parties to it

UNITED NATIONS: A key UN General Assembly committee adopted a resolution late Friday paving the way for negotiations on a first-ever treaty on preventing and punishing crimes against humanity after Russia dropped amendments that would have derailed the effort.

The resolution was approved by consensus by the assembly’s legal committee, which includes all 193-member UN nations, after tense last-minute negotiations between its supporters and Russia that dragged through the day.

There was loud applause when the chairman of the committee gaveled the resolution’s approval. It is virtually certain to be adopted when the General Assembly puts it to a final vote on Dec. 4.

“Today’s agreement to start up negotiations on a much-needed international treaty is a historic achievement that was a long time coming,” Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch’s senior legal adviser for advocacy, told The Associated Press.
“It sends a crucial message that impunity for the kinds of crimes inflicted on civilians in Ethiopia, Sudan, Ukraine, southern Israel, Gaza and Myanmar will not go unheeded,” he said.

The resolution calls for a time-bound process with preparatory sessions in 2026 and 2027, and three-week negotiating sessions in 2028 and 2029 to finalize a treaty on crimes against humanity.

Dicker said Russia’s proposed amendments left in question whether treaty negotiations would have been completed.

Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Maria Zabolotskaya said Russia withdrew the amendments “in a spirit of compromise.” But she said Russia “dissociates itself from consensus.”

“This, of course, does not mean that we are not ready to work on this crucial convention,” Zabolotskaya told the committee.

The International Criminal Court was established to punish major perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide and it has 124 countries that are parties to it. The ICC says crimes against humanity are committed as part of a large-scale attack on civilians and it lists 15 forms including murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, sexual slavery, torture and deportation.

But the ICC does not have jurisdiction over nearly 70 other countries.
There are global treaties that cover war crimes, genocide and torture — but there has been no specific treaty addressing crimes against humanity. And according to sponsors of the resolution, led by Mexico and Gambia and backed by 96 other countries, a new treaty will fill the gap.

Kelly Adams, legal adviser at the Global Justice Center, also called the resolution “a historic breakthrough” after many delays.

Pointing to “the proliferation of crimes against humanity around the world,” she expressed hope that a treaty will be “strong, progressive and survivor-centric.”
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard expressed disappointment that the timeline had been extended until 2029, but said, “What’s important is that this process will deliver a viable convention.”

“It is long overdue and all the more welcome at a time when too many states are intent on wrecking international law and universal standards,” she said. “It is a clear sign that states are ready to reinforce the international justice framework and clamp down on safe havens from investigation and prosecution for perpetrators of these heinous crimes.”
After the resolution’s adoption, Gambia’s Counselor Amadou Jaiteh, who had introduced it hours earlier, called its approval “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a difference,” to hope for a world without crimes against humanity, “and a world where voices of victims are heard louder than their perpetrators.”

Israel names Netanyahu ally and (ILLEGAL)  settler as US ambassador

Yechiel Leiter, an ally to Netanyahu and a member of his Likud party, has been named as Israel ambassador to the US.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
24 November, 2024

Yechiel Leiter's nomination as Israeli ambassador to US, comes weeks after pro-Israel Mike Huckabee's appointment [Getty/file photo]

The Israeli government said Sunday it had approved the nomination of Yechiel Leiter, an ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the ICC in connection to alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza, as the country's ambassador to the United States.

The announcement comes after US President-elect Donald Trump named hard-line conservative Mike Huckabee as his choice for US ambassador to Israel under his incoming administration.

"The government has unanimously approved the appointment of Dr Yechiel Leiter as ambassador to the United States," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A former adviser to Netanyahu, Leiter, 65, is originally from the United States and currently lives in a settlement in the occupied West Bank. Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are considered illegal under international law.

Close to the US Republican Party, Leiter used to be one of the leaders of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Israeli settlers in the West Bank in the 1990s.

He is also a member of Netanyahu's Likud party and currently works as a strategic adviser to Israeli think tanks.

His son, Moshe Leiter, was killed in combat in November 2023 in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been waging a deadly military onslaught for over a year, killing more than 44,000 Palestinians.

Yechiel Leiter will take on the ambassador role after Trump's inauguration next year, succeeding Mike Herzog, President Isaac Herzog's brother, who was appointed in 2021.

Leiter has criticised US President Joe Biden, slamming "American pressure" during the war in Gaza in an interview with private Israeli channel Tov in January.

Israel welcomed Huckabee's nomination this month, as he is a stalwart supporter of the country's government.

In 2017, he was present in Maale Adumim for the expansion of one of Israel's largest settlements in the West Bank.

Huckabee has also gone on to deny that the West Bank has ever been occupied, and refers to the territory as Judea and Samaria - a term commonly by used right-wing and far-right Israelis.

At 4 am, Israel struck a Beirut building, killing its residents as they slept. This is the aftermath

A dispatch from the site of the aftermath of Israeli airstrike in central Beirut at 4 am that killed at least 15 people, including children and injured dozens

Hanna Davis
Beirut
23 November, 2024
THE NEW ARAB

A child’s robe found in the rubble of an Israeli airstrike on Basta al-Fawqa [Philippe Pernot]

Beirut was jolted awake last night by deadly Israeli airstrikes, which hit in the heart of the Lebanese capital without warning at around 4 am, levelling an entire apartment block.

The attack was the fourth this week on central Beirut — coming as Israeli airstrikes on the country have markedly intensified since US envoy Amos Achstein ended his visit to the region on Wednesday, with ceasefire efforts stuck at the door of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel now wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza, though not yet in Lebanon.

Around noon on Saturday, rescue workers were still searching for survivors amid a massive pile of rubble, once an eight-story apartment building in the densely-populated Basta neighbourhood.

Dozens of the neighbourhood’s residents and relatives of those killed were gathered at the scene of the strike. Some stood quiet, in shock. Others had tears in their eyes, leaning on those around them for support.

Security was tense, with the press not allowed to go near the demolished building. As a body was brought toward an ambulance on standby, one of the multiple soldiers standing guard demanded cameras be turned off.

Israeli media claimed the Basta strike targeted a high-ranking Hezbollah official, but the group later denied any of its officials were present in the site.

Lebanon’s health ministry has reported that 15 people were killed and 63 injured, including men, women and children. The toll will likely be higher, as search and rescue efforts continue.

There was no evacuation order given prior to the strike, in the early hours of the morning when most of the neighbourhood was asleep.

‘An entire family killed’

On the outskirts of the crowd, a 25-year-old woman cried, comforted by her friend beside her. She was mourning her relatives killed in the attack, including 5-year-old Muhammad Ali, 9-year-old Fatima, and another 13-year-old girl, also named Fatima.



The woman, who requested to remain anonymous, said they had been living in the building with nine others — including their grandparents — for about a month after fleeing their home in Beirut’s southern suburbs, under heavy Israeli bombardment.

“An entire family was killed. It was such a shock,” she told TNA, in tears.

Over 3,650 people have been killed and more than 15,200 wounded by Israeli fire in Lebanon since October 2023, when Hezbollah initiated exchanges of fire with Israel in support of Gaza, as it claims.

Over the past two months, Israel has severely escalated its attacks throughout Lebanon.

Around the corner from the demolished building, Issam Abdullah, 55, was taking a break in a small cafe. Abdullah, a member of Lebanon’s civil defence, had just spent almost eight hours picking through the rubble for human remains.


He told TNA the bodies he removed from the rubble were unidentifiable, many of them in pieces. But he was sure at least two were children, by the size of their tiny, fragmented limbs.

“One wore a small blue bracelet, around her small hand,” he recounted.

Neighbourhood destroyed

Saturday’s strike hit just a building away from the location of another Israeli strike, in early October. Along the street not only homes, but also shops were destroyed, eroding both residents’ livelihoods and sense of security.

Abu Ali Bazaza’s mini-market — which he had been running for 45 years — was turned to rubble on Saturday. The market was on the building’s first floor, where he sold foodstuffs like hummus, sugar, and rice.

Next to his shop he said there was also a one-dollar shop and jewellery store, all now just debris.



“My work is now gone, what will I do?,” Bazaza told TNA, “I’m 67 years old, who would hire me?”

He said the families living in the building often came to his shop, noting that each floor had about two apartments. On the first floor there was a woman and her son and on the second, a man lived with his sister, Bazaza said.

He estimated there were around 25 people living in the building, including multiple displaced families, whom he believes were all killed.

“The house, the car, we can replace them, we can rebuild, but the soul, it cannot come back,” he added.


Nearby, Samih Masri, 31, sat outside his butchery, watching the rescue workers clear the rubble. He had just repaired his shop’s glass windows, which had been shattered by an Israeli strike in early October.

Before Israel’s escalation, his was one of around 20 shops, including hair salons, bakeries, and perfume stores, along the street. Now, most have been shuttered.

After Saturday’s strike Bazaza said he had lost hope too and would also have to close his doors, parting with his business of eight years. “There’s no more work,” he said, sighing.

‘We don’t have anywhere else to go’

Almost all of the buildings around the scene of the strike were damaged. Across the street, a woman swept the broken glass and debris covering her balcony. Below her, on the first floor, Zainab Ramo, 55, had just finished sweeping up the dust from her home and had just begun to cook eggs for herself and husband.

She said they had barely slept after the strike. “Of course, I am scared,” she told TNA, “I thought we would die.”

Both Israeli strikes in the area— in early October and yesterday — hit just meters away from Ramo’s home of 50 years, owned by her grandfather.

She said that her intense and near-constant fear since the strike in early October had given her diabetes and high blood pressure, and she was now on multiple medications. But, “we don’t have anywhere else to go”, she said.

The door to their kitchen had blown off and a piece landed on their daughter’s leg. Luckily, she said that with rest and pain medication, she would be okay.

Ramo’s neighbours were not so lucky. "I used to pass them, and say hello," she said, “I knew the caretaker [of the building], her, her husband, and children all passed away,” she said.

Outside Ramo's building a banner was still hung, in memory of those killed in early October, and a constant reminder of the death and destruction at her doorstep. “There were so many people who died,” she said.

[All photos by Philippe Pernot]

Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims pay high price in war between Israel and Hezbollah

Many Shiite Muslims believe they are being unfairly punished because they share a religious identity with Hezbollah and often live in the same areas

Israel has concentrated its attacks on villages in southern and northeastern Lebanon and neighborhoods south of Beirut, where a large numbers of Shiites who are not Hezbollah members live. (AP)

AP
November 25, 2024

BEIRUT: The Lebanese civilians most devastated by the Israel- Hezbollah war are Shiite Muslims, and many of them believe they are being unfairly punished because they share a religious identity with Hezbollah militants and often live in the same areas.

“This is clear,” said Wael Murtada, a young Shiite man who anxiously watched paramedics search rubble after a recent Israeli airstrike destroyed his uncle’s two-story home and killed 10 people. “Who else is being attacked?”

Israel has concentrated its attacks on villages in southern and northeastern Lebanon and neighborhoods south of Beirut. This is where many Hezbollah militants operate from, and their families live side by side with large numbers of Shiites who aren’t members of the group.

Israel insists its war is with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people – or the Shiite faith. It says it only targets members of the Iran-backed militant group to try to end their yearlong campaign of firing rockets over the border. But Israel’s stated objectives mean little to people like Murtada as growing numbers of Shiite civilians also die in a war that escalated sharply in recent months.

Shiites don’t just measure the suffering of their community in deaths and injuries. Entire blocks of the coastal city of Tyre have been flattened. Large parts of the historic market in the city of Nabatiyeh, which dates to the Ottoman era, have been destroyed. And in Baalbek, an airstrike damaged the city’s famed Hotel Palmyra, which opened in the late 19th century, and a home that dates to the Ottoman era.

“Lebanese Shias are being collectively punished. Their urban areas are being destroyed, and their cultural monuments and building are being destroyed,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

As Shiites flee their war-torn villages and neighborhoods, the conflict is increasingly following them to other parts of Lebanon, and this is fueling tensions.

Scores of people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on Christian, Sunni and Druze areas where displaced Shiites had taken refuge. Many residents in these areas now think twice before providing shelter to displaced people out of fear they may have links to Hezbollah.

“The Israelis are targeting all of Lebanon,” said Wassef Harakeh, a lawyer from Beirut’s southern suburbs who in 2022 ran against Hezbollah in the country’s parliamentary elections and whose office was recently demolished by an Israeli airstrike. He believes part of Israel’s goal is to exacerbate frictions within the small Mediterranean country, which has a long history of sectarian fighting even though diverse groups live together peacefully these days.

Some Shiites say statements from the Israeli military over the years have only reinforced suspicions that their wider community is being targeted as a means to put pressure on Hezbollah.

One commonly cited example is the so-called Dahiyeh doctrine, which was first espoused by Israeli generals during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. It is a reference to the southern suburbs of Beirut where Hezbollah is headquartered and where entire residential blocks, bridges and shopping compounds were destroyed in both wars. Israel says Hezbollah hides weapons and fighters in such areas, turning them into legitimate military targets.

A video released by the Israeli military last month has been interpreted by Shiites as further proof that little distinction is being made between Hezbollah fighters and Shiite civilians.

Speaking from a southern Lebanese village he did not name, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari called it “a terror base. This is a Lebanese village, a Shiite village built by Hezbollah.” As he toured a house and showed stocks of hand grenades, rifles, night-vision goggles and other military equipment, Hagari said: “Every house is a terror base.”
Another army spokesperson disputed the notion that Israel tries to blur the line between combatants and civilians. “Our war is with the terror group Hezbollah and not with the Lebanese population, whatever its origin,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. He denied that Israel was intentionally trying to disrupt the social fabric of Lebanon, and pointed to Israel’s evacuation warnings to civilians ahead of airstrikes as a step it takes to mitigate harm.

Many Lebanese, including some Shiites, blame Hezbollah for their suffering, while also decrying Israel’s bombardments. Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel last year the day after Hamas attacked Israel and started the war in Gaza; this went against the group’s promises to use its weapons only to defend Lebanon.

Since last October, more than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, and women and children accounted for more than 900 of the dead, according to the Health Ministry.

 More than 1 million people have been displaced from their homes. Shiites, who make up a third of Lebanon’s 5 million people, have borne the brunt of this suffering. Israel says it has killed well over 2,000 Hezbollah members in the past year.

The death and destruction in Lebanon ramped up significantly in mid-September, when Israeli airstrikes began targeting Hezbollah’s leaders, and once again in early October, when Israeli ground troops invaded.

Early in the war, Israeli airstrikes killed about 500 Hezbollah members but caused very little collateral damage. But since late September, airstrikes have destroyed entire buildings and homes, and in some cases killed dozens of civilians when the intended target was one Hezbollah member or official.

On one particularly bloody day, Sept. 23, Israeli airstrikes killed almost 500 people and prompted hundreds of thousands of people – again, mostly Shiites — to flee their homes in panic.

Murtada’s relatives fled from Beirut’s southern suburbs in late September after entire blocks had been wiped out by airstrikes. They moved 22 kilometers (about 14 miles) east of the city, to the predominantly Druze mountain village of Baalchmay to stay in the home of Murtada’s uncle.

Then, on Nov. 12, the home where they sought refuge was destroyed without warning. The airstrike killed nine relatives — three men, three women and three children — and a domestic worker, Murtada said.

The Israeli army said the home was being used by Hezbollah. Murtada, who lost a grandmother and an aunt in the strike, said nobody in the home was connected to the militant group.

Hezbollah has long boasted about its ability to deter Israel, but the latest war has proven otherwise and taken a severe toll on its leadership.

Some Shiites fear the weakening of Hezbollah will lead to the entire community being sidelined politically once the war is over. But others believe it could offer a political opening for more diverse Shiite voices.

Ceasefire negotiations to end the Israel-Hezbollah appear to have gained momentum over the past week. Some critics of Hezbollah say the group could have accepted months ago the conditions currently under consideration.

This would have spared Lebanon “destruction, martyrs and losses worth billions (of dollars),” Lebanese legislator Waddah Sadek, who is Sunni Muslim, wrote on X.

Spying for the Ottomans: 

MEMO in Conversation with Emrah Safa Gurkan

The 16 and 17 centuries saw an eruption in espionage, spying and covert operations, with a growing network of Christian clergymen, traders, slaves, travellers, nobles and others who were also intelligence operatives for Istanbul. We speak to the author of the book 'Spies for the Sultan' to find out more.

MEMO in Conversation With

November 20, 2024 

The Bishop of Heraclea, an Orthodox clergyman, approached the Habsburg royal family with a devious plot, the Austro-Spanish dynasty could form a secret alliance with the Persian Shah to take control of the Ottoman Empire. Together they could back the son of Sultan Suleiman I, Prince Selim, to seize power away from his brother Prince Mustafa. Little did the Habsburgs know, the cleric was also an Ottoman spy and part of a growing network of Christian clergymen, traders, slaves, travellers, nobles and others who were also intelligence operatives for Istanbul. The 16 and 17 centuries saw an eruption in espionage, spying and covert operations. A book recently translated from Turkish into English ‘Spies for the Sultan’ delves into the murky world of surveillance. Joining us for MEMO in Conversation is the book’s author Emrah Safa Gurkan.

Professor Gurkan teaches at the Istanbul 29 Mayis University’s department of political science and international relations. In 2012, he was awarded a doctorate in history from Georgetown University. He was the recipient of the Promising Scientist of the Year award at the 14th Kadir Has Awards in 2018. He received the the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from the same institution. He has written a number of articles in English, Turkish, Italian, Spanish and German as well as two scientific monographs, the first of which received the Scientific Monograph of the Year Award from the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA).

Canadian writer donates $25,000 prize to causes in Palestine and Lebanon

Canadian writer Madeleine Thien was awarded a $25,000 (CAD) prize by the Writers' Trust of Canada for her body of writing. To the audience's surprise, she announced she would 'return the prize money to the world', including part to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund and part to the Lebanese Red Cross.

November 22, 2024

Israel’s criminal responsibility is shielded by political complicity


Flag with the logo of the of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on March 29, 2022 in Den Haag, Netherlands [Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images via Getty Images]


MEMO
by Ramona Wadi
walzerscent
November 24, 2024 

It remains to be seen how world leaders of the 124 states that are party to the Rome Statute will comply with the international arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The ICC’s press release clearly states that both “bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes as co-perpetrators for committing the acts jointly with others: the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

World leaders’ responses have varied from outright assertions of complying with the ICC arrest warrants, to calibrated replies and adamant rejection. Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp said that the Rome Statute would be implemented if Netanyahu sets foot in the country, as did Switzerland.

“Yes absolutely. We support international courts and we apply their warrants,” Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris told RTE yesterday. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, “We stand up for international law, and we abide by all the rulings and regulations of the international courts.” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayma Safadi insisted that the ICC warrants should be implemented.

Israel is painting the ICC decision as “the first time the ICC has ever issued arrest warrants against leaders of a democratic country”. However, although Israel describes itself as a democratic country, it is a settler-colonial enterprise founded upon ethnic cleansing and sustained by genocide.

BLOG: USAID’s guise is dismantled by Israel’s genocide in Gaza

“No outrageous anti-Israeli decision will prevent us – and it will not prevent me – from continuing to defend our country in any way,” Netanyahu stated. Gallant called the decision as “a dangerous precedent against the right to self-defence and moral warfare and encourages murderous terrorism,” while describing his role as a ‘”privilege”.

The US, of course, rejected the ICC decision. “Let me be clear once again: whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he would invite Netanyahu to visit. “I will guarantee him that if he comes, the warrant will have no effect in Hungary”. Argentina’s Javier Milei rejected the ICC’s decision, stating that it “ignores Israel’s legitimate right to self-defence”.

Other countries adopted a cautious stance. Germany, for example, stated that it is “now examining what it means for us in terms of its international application”. France’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Christophe Lemoine described the ICC warrants as “legally complex” and said that France’s reaction would align with the principles of international justice. Austria described the arrest warrants as ludicrous but that the country would have to implement the ICC decision. Italy took a similar approach, saying that there is no equivalence between Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas, but that the arrests would happen if either visited Italy.

“Australia respects the independence of the ICC and its important role in upholding international law,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong stated.

Ahead of the G7 meeting to be held next week in which the ICC arrest warrants are to be discussed, Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani declared, “We respect and support the International Criminal Court, but we believe that its role should be legal rather than political.”

The ICC deals with criminal responsibility. However, the rhetoric of several leaders implies that a political stance will be influencing whether or not the ICC arrest warrants will be enforced if Netanyahu or Gallant visit the countries that are party to the Rome Statute. Almost all countries have prioritised their relations with Israel throughout the unfolding genocide in Gaza, and the ICC arrest warrants have only exposed the politics that underpin the overt or tacit support that Israel enjoys globally.

READ: Ex-France ambassador to Israel slams Germany’s refusal to comply with ICC arrest warrants

Countries that have stated they will implement the ICC’s decision could have taken a stance against genocide over a year ago. Yet, they waited until the arrest warrants to say they would comply with international law. What prevented these countries from abiding by international law prior to the ICC’s announcement?

As for the countries that attempted a neutral stance, the political deliberation is clear. Israel has committed genocide live-streamed. The criminal responsibility is clear – not only from the footage but also the constant incitement against Palestinians. Why does the G7 have to deliberate upon what action to take?

There is no unequivocal stance against genocide, but rather countries deciding upon opportune moments. What can be gleaned from most statements, including those that stated they would abide by the ICC’s arrest warrants, is that the purported political neutrality that supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza is still in full swing.

The ICC depends upon individual countries to enforce the arrest warrants. The Czech Republic, for example, described the ICC decision as “unfortunate” and said that the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant “should be substantiated by evidence”. What more evidence could the country possibly require to see the legitimacy in the arrest warrants? Why is genocide in Gaza still largely debatable, to the point that signatories to the Rome Statute are pondering their decision? Who is politicising the arrest warrants – the ICC or world leaders?

The European Commission has warned Orban over his stance, saying that refusing to implement the ICC decision would “breach international obligations”. True, but what of the EU’s obligations under international law. Why doesn’t the EC speak of genocide in Gaza? The reason, of course, is clear. The EC is beholden to Israel’s security narrative. Its stance merely reflects the positioning of one international entity reciprocating the status of another international entity. The politics, however, does not indicate a stance against the crime of genocide but merely compliance with the possibility of the ICC arrest warrants being activated, should Netanyahu visit any EU country that is bound by the Rome Statute.

It is likely that criminal accountability as the ICC seeks to establish will be thwarted by political interpretation of the arrest warrants. However, let us all keep in mind that Israel’s genocide in Gaza is marked by both criminal and political accountability. The ICC arrest warrants have exposed the latter, in light of the genocide, to the point that oblivion is no longer impenetrable.

Pentagon admits rejection of ICC arrest warrants has no legal basis

A Pentagon spokesperson admitted that the US's decision to reject the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Galant are not grounded in law and reiterated that the US doesn't believe the ICC has jurisdiction over Israel and Gaza. Neither the US or Israel are member states of the ICC.

MEMO   November 22, 2024

Opinion

Genocide is not a grotesque game by numbers; it is the worst of crimes


A demonstrator holds a banner with the portrait of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next to list with dead Palestine people at Plaza de Mayo Square in Buenos Aires on 7 October, 2024 [JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images]

by Yvonne Ridley
yvonneridley
November 24, 2024 


There is a tsunami of blood red ink gushing forth from the incredulous pens of angry far-right defenders of the Zionist State of Israel who are reeling from the shock of the unprecedented legal action taken against Israel’s leaders by the International Criminal Court: arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Defence Minister he sacked earlier this month, Yoav Gallant.

Such a response was as predictable as Netanyahu’s claim of “anti-Semitism” — as was the flow of whataboutery — as each tried to outdo the other in their efforts to justify Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza. One desperate defender of all things Israeli has even plumbed the depths of depravity by calling out nations with “higher kill counts”.

Admittedly, when it comes to genocide whataboutery, there is one country in a league of its own: the United States of America. In recent centuries, European settlers have wiped out indigenous populations without so much as a by your leave. But this is a poor excuse for letting Israel act with impunity.

We must not forget that among the disappearing nations are the once proud Native Americans of North and South America, and Australia’s Aborigines, wiped out in their millions by Europe’s greed for land and resources. It’s a fact that whenever there is a genocide, European imperialists and colonial settlers are rarely far away, and the same is true in occupied Palestine. The numbers involved in such genocides far outweigh the industrial scale massacre of Palestinians since the Nakba. However, do the supporters of the Zionist state really expect us to sit idly by, and say and do nothing until Israel has killed enough Palestinians to join the major league of genocidal maniacs?


This is not a game of numbers.

Moreover, do the Zionist genocide apologists seriously expect the Palestinians to be sitting ducks instead of fighting for their very existence in the face of a brutal military occupation of their land? Resistance against occupation is their right under international law.

The number slaughtered in the Holocaust was six million, mostly Jews. Mercifully, the Nazi extermination programme was halted, thank God, because European, US and Soviet forces came together to stop the fascists in their tracks. What would those brave men and women think of today’s crop of right-wing extremists pulling the strings in Europe and the US to defend the neo-fascist Zionist state, I wonder?

OPINION: AIPAC-bought-and-paid-for moonbat calls for US to invade The Hague over arrest warrants

Lest the current crop of right-wing extremists forget, the International Court of Justice was formed post-World War II as a direct result of the Nazi war crimes and genocide committed in Europe against Jews and other minority groups. The ICC followed in 2002 to hold individuals, rather than states, to account.

The UN Charter was signed on 26 June, 1945, and the organisation came into existence a few months later on 24 October. It was established to protect millions of ordinary citizens and work to prevent future world wars. The initial membership has expanded from 51 nations in 1945 to 193 today. The UN has been hanging precariously since 7 October 2023, with its own employees targeted by Israel. At least 233 staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have been killed by Israel since 7 October last year. The agency has now been banned from working in the occupation state, which refuses to recognise the UN passports of its staff, and many UNRWA buildings and schools have been destroyed by Israeli bombs.

That a global force for good can be so publicly trashed and derided by Zionists speaks volumes about where “Western civilisation” stands today. For more than 400 days the world has watched, torn between shock and revulsion at what Israel has done to the Palestinians in the name of self-defence. The Gaza genocide has been (and still is) filled with truly shocking murders, prison rapes, torture and starvation as the Zionist State’s inhumanity has been broadcast in real time on social media.



Who can forget little Hind Rajab, the six-year-old who went missing in Gaza City in January?

Her fragile body was found in the family car alongside her aunt, uncle and three young cousins, as well as two paramedics who had tried to save her; all had been killed by the crew of an Israeli tank just metres away. Listen to the heartbreaking audio recordings of the call made by Hind to Gaza’s emergency services letting them know that she was the only one left alive in the car, hiding from Israeli forces among the bodies of her relatives. Israeli soldiers in a tank killed her mercilessly; a six-year-old child.

Two months later, we heard the testimony of Hadeel Al-Dahdouh, a 24-yeaar-old mother of two, who was beaten, tortured and buried alive by Israeli occupation forces.

Then just when we thought we could not be shocked any more, in July we heard that 24-year-old Muhammed Bhar, who had Down’s Syndrome, was found dead by his family a week after Israeli soldiers set a military attack dog on him in his home. He was savaged and left to die.

Throughout the past 400+ days we’ve been exposed to the crimes of Israeli soldiers which they felt empowered enough to film and share on Facebook and Instagram. The perverts dressed in the underwear and night clothes of their Palestinian female victims, laughing and joking for all to see, will, please God, come to regret their crimes. Others filmed themselves looting and pillaging the homes of their victims. All of these well-documented war crimes will, if there is any justice at all in this world, come back to haunt these soldiers, some of whom live in Europe and have been identified.

War crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed with apparent impunity, ordered and enabled from the very top of the occupation regime, hence the arrest warrants, a clear signal from the ICC that it doesn’t trust Israel’s corrupt legal system to be robust enough to bring the criminals to account. When it comes to genocide, “never again” must mean just that. Convictions at all levels of the Israeli hierarchy at The Hague will be a tribute to every single person around the world who has marched for justice for Palestine; for all the university students who set up peace camps; and for activists such as those working with Palestine Action who risked their own liberty to try to stop the war.

World leaders will ignore such movements at their peril in future. It might have taken a while for the Global North to wake up to what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights established on 10 December 1948 really means, but Israel — if it survives in its present form — will learn a lesson that no nation, state or people, is above the law, and nor are the so-called superpowers.

Might should never be right in a civilised world; justice has to be for everyone, including the Global South.

This means that the law cannot be applied according to some sort of grotesque numbers game. The Srebrenica Genocide in July 1995 saw Serb forces slaughter 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys. While it is impossible to try to quantify 80 years of pain and suffering endured by the Palestinian people, there is no doubt that the number of civilians killed by Israel in Gaza is more than ten times that of the Bosnian genocide, with tens of thousands more wounded and missing, presumed dead. And yet, media commentators and talking heads such as Piers Morgan still cannot acknowledge that a genocide is taking place before our eyes in Gaza. He and those like him think that they know better than UN experts, lawyers and genocide scholars.

This is something he will have to live with as long as writers like myself are able to remind him. It would serve Morgan and his ilk well to remember how former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright came to her senses when being interviewed by Democracy Now! presenter Amy Goodman about her atrocious comment that the “price was worth it” when 500,000 Iraqi children died as a result of US sanctions.

The late Albright told Goodman in 2004: “I have said 5,000 times that I regret it. It was a stupid statement. I never should have made it. And if everybody else that has ever made a statement they regret would stand up, there would be a lot of people standing. I have many, many times said it, and I wish that people would report that I have said it. I wrote it in my book that it was a stupid statement.” Over to you, Piers.

Britain’s Guardian published an editorial this week pointing out that international law should not only apply to weaker nations. “The crimes at the centre of these [ICC arrest] warrants are among the gravest violations of international humanitarian law, including starvation as a weapon of war and deliberate attacks on civilians. When such acts are systematic and state-driven, they demand accountability. The ICC’s pursuit of justice tests the international community’s resolve to uphold these norms in the face of political resistance.”

The ICC arrest warrants are a victory for people power and the growing anti-war movement, but it is also a huge victory for the heroic Palestinians who have struggled so bravely to expose the crimes committed against them to a watching world which has been almost totally blind to Zionist cruelty. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the Palestinians we would never have known exactly how evil the Zionist State of Israel and its supporters really are.


The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

A bright day in the history of the international humanitarian community



Pro-Palestinian protesters gather to show solidarity with Palestinians and protest against Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza, despite a ban on marches on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Rome, Italy on January 27, 2024. [Riccardo De Luca – Anadolu Agency]

by Muhammad Jamil
November 23, 2024

MEMO

An earthquake shook the fascist entity after more than 400 days in which a genocide, the mother of all crimes, was being committed against the civilians in the Gaza Strip, including women, children and the elderly. The politicians of this entity believed they were immune from prosecution due to the unlimited support of the colonial West led by the United States.

The unanimous decision of the international Criminal Court Pre-Trail Chamber 1, which stipulated the approval of the arrest warrants of Netanyahu and Galant was a heavy blow that shook the entity and the supporting capitals, including members of the court who became helpless and regretted providing support for the crimes of the entity at all levels, military, political and economic.

The decision is of huge importance as it was issued unanimously by the highest international judicial body. This decision is the title of the truth, and it rebutted the Western narrative about the entity’s right to self-defence, as if the daily killings, destruction, and complete genocides were normal and accepted. The claims which the supporters of the entity and their media have been using regularly to deny the commission of Netanyahu and Galant of war crimes and crimes against humanity were thrown into the dustbin of history by a judicial blow. Those who provided support for Netanyahu’s crimes should lie low and watch their steps when it comes to future relationship with the entity.

The only decision-maker in the world, the United States of America, which is not a member of the International Criminal Court, stands alone and with complete impudence against this decision, claiming that the warrants were not issued in a way that followed the usual procedures in the court, as if the entity has means for prosecution, accountability and investigation of the alleged crimes. However, this position is not an unfamiliar one for a country that was founded after committing the first genocide in history against indigenous peoples and committed the most horrific crimes around the world.

As for the other countries, most notably the European countries and Britain, which are mostly supporters of the crimes of the occupation, they stand helpless now following this decision. Before this decision was issued, politicians fiercely denied the commission of the entity to any crimes and emphasised its right to self-defence. Today, after the issuance of the decision, they announce their respect to the decision and that they will arrest those who have warrants issued against them, should they set foot on the territories of any of these countries.




‘A war criminal’: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blood on his hands – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]Not only that, the 124 countries who are members of the International Criminal Court are obligated to implement this decision and cannot ignore it under any circumstances should the wanted persons dare to visit any of them, and even countries that are not members of the court are morally and legally obligated to arrest them. Those in Arab world who have normalised relations with the entity should reconsider their relationship with it, as it would be disgraceful to ignore a decision issued by the highest international judicial body.

Read: Are the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant a victory for Palestinians?

The current debates that only the states parties to the court are obligated to implement the decision are completely wrong. All 195 member states of the International Police Organization (Interpol) are also legally obligated to implement the decision. In 2004, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court signed an agreement with Interpol stipulating comprehensive cooperation in prosecuting crimes specified in the Rome Convention.

More importantly, in Article 4 of the agreement, Interpol is obligated to circulate red notices with the names of the wanted persons upon the request of the Prosecutor.

Moreover, Interpol has made serious crimes stipulated in the Rome Convention a core part of its work. In 2014, it established a special unit to focus on war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in cooperation with member states and international courts concerned with these crimes.

The issuance of these warrants went through stages of unprecedented difficult throes, including spying on court employees and sending death threats to the prosecutor, judges and their families. However, all these efforts failed in preventing the issuance of the warrants that brought life again to international humanitarian law which had entered a state of clinical death due to the blows it constantly received over more than a year of genocide.

The office of the Prosecutor has a long way to go to prosecute many crimes, old and new, which were committed since Palestine was subjected to the jurisdiction of the court in June 2014. The most important ones of those crimes are the crimes of settlement, as the West Bank is on the verge of annexation, according to Smotrich. The list of perpetrators of crimes in occupied Palestine is long. If the prosecutor rolled up his sleeves, freed himself from the threats and pressures, and took the required measures, the entity will break the record in arrest warrants and will be marked as a rogue entity.

It is truly a black day in the history of the entity and a bright day in the history of the international humanitarian community which gave a glimmer of hope in the possibility of pursuing and holding accountable those who considered themselves above the law for decades, committed the most heinous crimes, and ignored all international resolutions and calls to stop the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

COP29

Cop climate talks give ‘crumbs’ to Global South

Cop’s own economists say the Global South needs 2.4 trillion dollars to cope with extreme weather and switch economies away from fossil fuels

A climate march in London as the Cop talks too place

 (Picture: Guy Smallman)

By Camilla Royle
Sunday 24 November 2024  

 SOCIALIST WORKER   Issue

The international Cop29 climate talks have once again abandoned the billions of people around the world facing an environmental catastrophe.

Last year was the hottest on record—and 2024 looks set to break this record again. This will lead to flash flooding, storms and droughts. Temperatures already exceeded the target that was agreed at the Paris climate talks in 2015—1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels—for part of this year.

This was meant to be the “finance Cop”. Global South countries have been asking for a trillion dollars per year from the Global North to help them deal with the effects of climate change.

Yet the richer countries only agreed to pay £238 billion and this would only be delivered by 2035. Panama’s lead negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez said the amounts being offered were “outrageous, evil and remorseless”. He said, “They offer crumbs while we bear the dead.”

At one point, Global South delegates walked out of the talks in disgust. They included many representatives of small island states who fear being swamped by rising sea levels.

Cop’s own economists say the Global South needs 2.4 trillion dollars to cope with extreme weather and switch economies away from fossil fuels.

The Cop talks have provided an opportunity for oil-rich states to try to protect their domestic fossil fuel industries and water down agreements.

Last year the talks agreed to accelerate efforts towards “the phase-down of unabated coal power”. This came nowhere close to the rapid shutdown of all new fossil fuel extraction that is needed.

This year delegates have lobbied against even these weak proposals. Saudi Arabia opposed any inclusion of measures to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

Albara Tawfiq from the Saudi delegation said it “will not accept any text that targets any specific sectors, including fossil fuels”. Delegates from China also spoke out against specific pledges over fossil fuels.

Bolivia’s delegates opposed it on the basis that richer countries should cut their own emissions before telling the Global South not to develop fossil fuel industries.

A giant natural gas field has recently been discovered in Bolivia, which the country’s leaders hope will help revive the economy. But gas exploration in the Latin American country has angered environmental and indigenous groups.

Delegates from Colombia took a different stance. Susana Muhamad is the environment minister in the left wing government that came to office two years ago and pledged to phase out fossil fuel production. “What is the point of having an agreement and a convention if we cannot deal with the issue that creates the problem?” she asked.

The Cop talks took place in Baku in Azerbaijan, a centre of the fossil fuel industry. Azerbaijan plans to increase its exports of gas to countries in the West which no longer want to import gas from Russia.

But it also played a major role in supplying oil to the eastern Mediterranean via the BTS pipeline— including to Israel.

Labour energy secretary Ed Miliband gave a speech at the talks. He admitted that the Cop process is “imperfect” but added that it is “the best process we have got”.

Miliband said that an expansion of clean energy will lead to economic growth. He said, “It is right for tackling the climate crisis and for the face of future generations. And it is right economically for Britain because it will spur jobs and export opportunities and help businesses.”

The Labour government announced at the start of the Cop talks that it wants to cut emissions by 81 percent by 2035. That’s a slight increase on the 78 percent pledge from the previous Tory government. Miliband has said he wouldn’t issue new oil and gas licences to achieve this.

Yet while Labour make bold speeches about global ambition and deep emissions cuts, their plans involve massive investment in carbon capture and storage technologies. Experts say this will deepen Britain’s dependence on oil and gas.

And the government is committed to working with climate change denying United States president Donald Trump. Miliband has said that he wants to find “common ground” and “work with all countries to move forward on this really important issue”.

Labour is presiding over a fossil fuelled capitalist system that is driving us towards disaster.

WWIII

Labour opens Glasgow site to ramp up deadly arms race with China

The new site in Glasgow will help to supply Australia with nuclear submarines

The Aukus deal will develop nuclear submarines for Australia 

(Picture: NZ Defence Force)

By Tomáš Tengely-Evans
Friday 22 November 2024    

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue

The warmongers of the Labour Party have opened a new site in Glasgow as a “clear demonstration” of their “commitment to Britain’s nuclear deterrent”.

Labour defence minister Maria Eagle opened the Rolls Royce office near Glasgow Airport on Friday. It’s for specialists who will help to deliver the Aukus programme—a United States and British agreement to supply Australia with nuclear submarines.

Aukus is part of the deadly arms race between the West and China in Asia and the Pacific. Eagle said, “The opening of the new Rolls-Royce office in Glasgow is a clear demonstration of the government’s commitment to the UK’s nuclear deterrent.

“This investment is delivered alongside an important industry partnership and will support high-skilled jobs and economic growth that will benefit our prosperity and security for decades to come.”

Labour is pushing the lie that Aukus is good for working class people. Scottish Secretary, the odious Union Jack-waving Ian Murray, claimed, “Economic growth is the British Government’s top mission. I welcome the opening of this new Ministry of Defence funded office and the 120 high-skilled jobs it has created.”

Two of the biggest unions, Unite and GMB, go along with this pro-war, pro-arms argument. The STUC trade union federation’s conference in 2023 backed a motion slamming the Aukus deal as “heightening nuclear tensions in the Pacific”.

GMB opposed the motion saying Aukus would deter Chinese aggression, while Unite said it would put skilled jobs at risk. But the billions of pounds spent on Aukus could be invested into public services and green industries, as part of a just transition for workers in arms industries.

The British government has not provided an estimated cost of the Aukus programme, which will see submarines enter service in the late 2030s. But it did announce £3 billion in funding in March 2023. That’s a small fraction of what the final cost will be—yet this sum alone could pay for over 30,000 nurses.

The opening of the office came as the West ramps up tensions in Ukraine. Joe Biden authorised Ukraine to fire US-supplied missiles into Russian territory on Monday—and Keir Starmer quickly followed suit.

After Ukrainian forces fired the missiles, Russia bombed the country with an intercontinental ballistic missile—the sort that can carry nuclear warheads. President Vladimir Putin broadened the state’s nuclear doctrine, meaning Russian forces could use nuclear weapons if attacked by a non-nuclear power that’s backed by nuclear-armed states.

Imperialist rivalry between the West and Russia has torn Ukraine apart—and now threatens nuclear war. But, as the West pours fuel onto the fire, the Scottish National Party (SNP) first minister John Swinney said he “supports the steps taken” by the US and Britain.

Stop The War Coalition Scotland, the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the STUC has called a national demonstration in Glasgow on Saturday. Jeremy Corbyn is set to speak at the demonstration, and it is backed by the RMT, PCS, UCU, EIS and FBU unions, Scottish Lebanese Society and others.

As the West ramps up the drive to war in Ukraine and the Middle East, it’s vital to build the Palestine, anti-war and anti-imperialist movements.National demonstration: Stop all arms sales to Israel, Hands off Gaza and Lebanon, No war with Iran, Welfare not Warfare. Saturday 23 November, 11.30am, Glasgow Green