Israel appoints general to attack ICC probe into its war crimes!

Crescent International

Jumada' al-Akhirah 27, 1442 2021-02-09

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

As a military garrison state, Israel’s response to the potential probe by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes charges is to launch a multipronged attack against the court.

In addition to sending secret directives to its embassies to frustrate ICC’s formal investigation, Tel Aviv also plans to ask several Western regimes to put pressure on the international legal body not to proceed.

This was revealed by Al-Watan Voice, quoting the Israeli website, Walla!

Many Western regimes, including the US and Canada, have already officially sided with Israel parroting the old line that the court has no authority to investigate Israeli war crimes!

Their argument is that Israel is not a member of the ICC and has not ratified the Rome Statute, and that Palestine is not a “State”.

In its 60-page, two-to-one decision, the court ruled that “Palestine qualifies as ‘the State on the territory of which the conduct in question occurred’,” and that “the Court’s territorial jurisdiction in the Situation in Palestine extends to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

The ruling further stated it was “not persuaded by the argument that ‘[r]ulings on territorial jurisdiction necessarily impair a suspect/accused’s right to challenge’ jurisdiction under” the Rome Statute.

The most interesting—and revealing—part of Israel’s plan is the appointment of an Israeli general to lead the counter-attack to block the ICC investigation.

Israel Hayom, the Israeli newspaper owned by the late American gambling czar Sheldon Adelson, was quoted by Anadolu wire service as saying the army had appointed Major General Itai Veru “to coordinate all aspects of the legal battle against the International Criminal Court (ICC)”.

Israel treats every problem as a military threat, hence its immediate resort to military means.

What would General Veru do: order Israeli commandos to attack the ICC in The Hague and prevent the prosecution from investigating Israeli war crimes?

While putting on a brave face in public—in addition to resorting to the old canard that any criticism of Israel is based on ‘anti-Semitism’—Zionist rulers are clearly worried.

The three-member panel of judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) had ruled February 5 that the court has jurisdiction over war crimes and atrocities committed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The panel comprised Marc Perrin de Brichambaut of France and Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin who represented the majority opinion of the pretrial chamber.

The third judge, Péter Kovács of Hungary, wrote the dissenting opinion.

The ICC investigation, if it proceeds, will focus on Israel’s war crimes in Gaza during its assault on the enclave in July 2014 when the Israeli army bombed apartment buildings, houses, schools and even hospitals killing some 2,200 civilians.

Children playing on the beach were also attacked and murdered.

Should the court proceed and find Israeli military and political leaders guilty of war crimes, they would face arrest if they traveled to certain countries.

It is now up to Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor at the ICC, to decide whether and how to proceed.