Israel in ICC dock for war crimes

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Amjad Hossain from Virginia, USA | Published: February 06, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: February 05, 2015 22:43:43

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague has recognised the cause of the Palestinian Authority when Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor, took up a case against Israel for committing war crimes in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967. This means Israel will be in the dock to face war crimes charges in absentia against the Palestinians.
But the ICC has no authority to bring war perpetrators to book because Israel is not a signatory to the Rome statue of establishing the court in 2002. However, theoretically, Israeli political leaders and army generals would be indicted by the court. Arrests of warrant would be issued but the accused will remain in Israel. In this scenario, political leaders and army generals of Israel will not visit any country except the US, which too is not a signatory to the Rome statue.
Having seen the move by the Palestinian Authority, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became incensed. He immediately and illegally seized $128 million in taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian authority and threatened to take further punitive action. Netanyahu always argued against the move saying the Israeli defence forces' action that killed more than 2,000 people including 400 children and destroyed thousands of homes in the Gaza strip in August, 2014, was in self-defence. Apparently, Netanyahu is fully aware that international justice is on the side of the Palestinians.
The office of the chief prosecutor of the ICC Fatou Bensouda announced that she opened a case of war crimes against Israel and her office would conduct initially its analysis of the situation independently and impartially to be followed by physical investigation. The chief prosecutor would seek retrospective action against Israel at the ICC. Those, who had constructed settlements of the Jewish community in violation of the fourth Geneva Convention in occupied territories of the Palestinians, are likely to be subjected to prosecution in the court as well.
President of the Palestinian Authority has no other option but to seek justice from the ICC. This is because series of bilateral talks to resolve conflicts between Palestinians and Israel failed to click since the Oslo treaty in 1993 and after the UN Security Council voted down a Palestinian bid for statehood that called on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem by 2016.
Since preliminary investigation began a couple of days back, Netanyahu criticised the move of the ICC and said it is preposterous while its ally the US condemned it. This gives an impression of the US administration's double standard in conducting foreign policy. There is no logic to defend war crimes whoever commits these in violation of laws regarding a war or the Geneva convention. It is learnt that the Israeli administration has now begun a campaign against the ICC by appealing to some UN member-countries, signatories to the statue of Rome, to cut financial assistance to this prestigious criminal court.
Israel has not only committed serious crimes against the innocent population of Palestine but also children in the Gaza strip during war against Hamas in August last year. No less than UN Secretary-General of Ban Ki Moon severely condemned Israeli air raid which had caused destruction of UN-mandated schools where many Palestinians took shelter.
In 2009, a UN inquiry, headed by  a former South African judge Richard Goldstone, delivered 575-page report in September detailing damages of the war accusing both Israel and armed Palestinians. However, the report singled out Israel and its policy towards the Palestinians in Gaza strip with its most serious condemnation. It accused Israeli troops of using Palestinians as human shields terming it a war crime and said the long Israeli economic blockade of Gaza amounted to collective punishment intentionally inflicted by Israel on the civilian population of the Gaza strip. It was possibly by far the most serious investigation made internationally. But it did not see light at the end of the tunnel because it was not placed in the Security Council to punish Israel for war crimes.
The three-week war in 2009 killed 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis which in fact evoked a wave of criticisms from across the world. The report did not accept Israeli argument that the war was in response to Palestinian rocket fires and therefore an act of self-defence. Instead, the inquiry found the war a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorise a civilian population.
Israel's war crimes are being protected by the US administration for no cogent reason.  The ICC accepted case of the Palestinians against Israel because state of Palestine was recognised by the UN General Assembly in 2012 by upgrading their status to non-member observer state. The ICC is composed of senior internationally-reputed judges.
As of now, the ICC has succeeded in indicting Radovan Karadzic, president of the breakaway Bosnian Serbia for war crimes, including genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity and Charles Taylor, former Liberian president. The court completed proceedings on genocide in Rwanda while Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashar remained at large. A couple of days back, a high-ranking commander of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) which had launched fighting against the Uganda government, has surrendered. He is now in the ICC dock. Tony Blair, the British prime minister and George W.Bush, president of the US, despite appeal by Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu of South Africa, were not brought to justice for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Iraq.
Some western commentators have expressed dissatisfaction about the conduct of the ICC which 122 countries of the world ratified the Rome statue for establishing it. The world is eagerly waiting to see the results of the court proceedings against Israel's war crimes against the Palestinians.

The writer is retired Bangladeshi diplomat.  amjad.21@gmail.com