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The ICC Should Be Prosecuting Hamas, Not Benjamin Netanyahu

(Telegraph-UK) Guglielmo Verdirame - The International Criminal Court (ICC) should intervene only where national legal systems fail - a principle known as complementarity. So why has it gone after Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of a country with a legal system so independent that he is already on trial there? And why, with so much evidence, is no living Palestinian terrorist facing arrest by the ICC in connection with the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks on Israel? Oct. 7 was no ordinary terrorist act. The catalogue of crimes included murder, hostage-taking, arson, mutilation and rape - much of it recorded and live-streamed by Hamas. Even corpses were kidnapped. Under international law, acts of extermination, murder, torture or rape committed as part of such an attack against civilians amount to crimes against humanity. The destruction of civilian life was Hamas's central objective. Israel had been routinely condemned for its blockade of Gaza which critics said was grossly disproportionate. But by Oct. 7, Hamas had amassed vast quantities of advanced weapons and munitions. Far from being disproportionate, the blockade had in fact been far less than adequate. Imagine if scores of small towns and villages had been destroyed in Britain, with thousands killed and wounded, and hundreds raped, mutilated or taken hostage. And then imagine the enemy sitting a stone's throw away, continuing to launch rockets and planning more. What would be a proportionate response? The ICC should be acting against the leaders of Hamas, not Netanyahu. Lord Verdirame KC specializes in public international law.
2025-03-18 00:00:00
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