|
Trending Topics
|
The ICC's Illegitimate Pursuit of Israeli Leaders Is Political Warfare
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Eugene Kontorovich and Avraham Shalev - The International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is reportedly seeking a second round of arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials. This would be more warrants than the Court has issued for Russian officials for their conquests in Ukraine and Georgia or against any government in all the bloody conflicts in the world. Khan requested arrest warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Gallant in 2024. The ICC can only hear cases involving member states. So the Court invented a "State of Palestine," which it admitted might not be a state for any purposes other than giving the Court jurisdiction over Israel. Israel is the only non-member state being prosecuted at the behest of a member that is not a state. In the new cases, Israeli officials are being ostensibly targeted due to their involvement in allowing homes to be built in the settlements. In the history of international criminal law, no one has ever been prosecuted for such conduct. The Geneva Conventions prohibit government-organized population transfers akin to the Nazi colonization programs of Eastern Europe. It was never meant to cover individuals freely choosing to move from Kfar Saba to Elkana. Israel has not transferred anyone into the settlements. The Jewish presence there has emerged through voluntary migration and return to prior Jewish-inhabited areas. The settlement activities the ICC is seeking warrants for are a "made for Israel" crime. Turkey continues to illegally occupy northern Cyprus and to carry out a massive demographic campaign to settle ethnic Turks in the territory. Over a decade ago, Cypriot refugees filed a complaint against Turkey at the ICC over its occupation and settlement policy. Since then, nothing has happened. Eugene Kontorovich is a professor at George Mason University Law School. Avraham Shalev is a senior fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum in Jerusalem.