Have Vicious Attacks On The International Criminal Court Had Their Intended Impact?
Attacks on the lead prosecutor and the International Criminal Court may explain why there are still no arrest warrants for top Israeli officials alleged to have committed war crimes in Gaza.
***Update: The day after this story was published, Khan told the BBC that several world leaders pressured the court not to issue the warrants. He said it was necessary to show that all nations will be held to the same standard in relation to war crimes. Middle East Eye,
It is not hard to intimidate judges.
That’s why America’s founders took great pains to include provisions in the U.S. Constitution to protect judges from political influences so they can render impartial rulings. For example, federal judges have lifetime tenure in good behavior to help them withstand outside political pressures.
The International Criminal Court and its lead prosecutor, Karim A.A. Khan, have been subjected to shocking and unethical attacks in recent months.
Khan announced on May 20 that he was filing applications for warrants to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for war crimes in the territory of the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip).
He alleged Netanyahu and Gallant engineered a strategy to starve civilians as a method of warfare, intentionally directed attacks against a civilian population, condoned murder, and committed “other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity.”
“We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the Palestinian civilian population pursuant to State policy,” writes Khan.
It’s been three months and no warrants have been issued.
Meanwhile, things have gotten much worse in the Mideast.
Israel basically leveled Gaza, incapacitated all of its hospitals and forced 2.2 million Gazans into a shoreline space of roughly 15 square miles without adequate food or proper conditions to sustain life. A polio epidemic broke out due to unsanitary conditions. Israel is in the process of seizing the West Bank, killing and driving Palestinian settlers from their homes.
It is estimated Israel has now killed at least 40,861 people, including nearly 16,500 children, and injured more than 94,298 people.
Why haven’t the warrants been issued? It may be as simple as the vicious personal attacks on Khan and members of the International Criminal Court.
The most shocking attack on Khan was an April 24 letter from a group of 12 Republican U.S. Senators threatening that an arrest warrant against Israeli officials would “result in severe sanctions against you and your institution.” The Senators said they would interpret an arrest warrant “not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States.”
“Target Israel and we will target you,” wrote the Senators.
It was personal. “We will move to end all American support for the ICC, sanction your employees and associations, and bar you and your families from the United States. You have been warned,” wrote the Senators.
“You have been warned,” they wrote.
The letter signers were Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Katie Britt of Alabama, Ted Budd of North Carolina, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Ted Cruz of Texas, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Marco Rubio of Florida, Rich Scott of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Many of the signers are attorneys who acted in a demonstrably unethical manner by threatening a court of law.
Federal and state bar association rules of professional conduct strictly forbid attorneys from attempting to improperly influence judges or judicial proceedings.
Arguably, Cotton, Cruz, Britt, Rubio, and other attorneys who signed the threatening letter should face disbarment proceedings.
Moreover, each of the letter writers has received tens of thousands of dollars from Israeli lobbying groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). They have an obvious conflict of interest.
Open Secrets reports that McConnell, who is Senate minority leader, has received $1,998,774 from AIPAC since 1990, while Cruz has received $1,403,205 and Rubio has received $1,013,563.
A group in England is now demanding that Khan be disbarred.
The Labour Party recently won a national election in Great Britain and has indicated it is not willing to block arrest warrants for Netanyau and Gallant. So, a group called UK lawyers for Israel began a new campaign last week to revoke Khan’s British law license.
In a very thinly argued 25-page letter, the group claims Khan violated the code of conduct of the English bar by failing to provide evidence to a pretrial panel of judges considering applications for arrest warrants It’s predictable and hardly worth going into.
Basically, UK Lawyers for Israel says Khan failed to provide evidence showing that Israel committed the crime of genocide by exterminating civilians, starving civilians as a method of warfare, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, etc.
In response, Khan’s office issued a statement: “The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC underlines that it will not be improperly influenced by any form of threat and harassment in pursuing its Rome Statute responsibilities independently and impartially.”
It is outrageous that Khan and the ICC have been openly threatened and intimidated, particularly by powerful members of the U.S. Senate. No one can say for sure whether their tactics have worked. But the lack of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant point to that conclusion.
When Khan announced his intention to seek arrest warrants for the Israeli officials, he also announced he would seek arrest warrants for Hamas officials Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim AlMasri, and Ismail Haniyeh for war crimes committed on Oct. 7, when Hamas invaded Israel and killed an estimated 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. No one in the U.S. Senate or elsewhere have voiced objections to object to that.
About 97 Israeli hostages remain unaccounted for.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden said Netanyahu was not doing enough to secure a hostage deal and ceasefire with Hamas.