Israel, in the Piercing Lens of the ICC

"Who are they accusing here? Iran? Turkey? Syria? No — Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. This is terrible hypocrisy."
"We will struggle for our rights and for our historical truth with all the tools at our disposal."
"We will continue to struggle against this always."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

ICC’s prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, right, and deputy prosecutor James Stewart, center, at the International Criminal Court, ICC, in The Hague, Netherlands. (Piroschka van de Wouw/pool/AP)

The International Criminal Court in the Hague on Friday, through its prosecutor, Faton Bensouda, issued a 112-page report which states that there is "a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes were committed" both by the Israel Defence Forces and by Hamas and other "Palestinian armed groups". Israel is accused of certain war crimes in the framework of Operation Protective Edge of 2014, the 50-day conflict against Hamas terrorists:

• intentionally launching at least three disproportionate attacks
• willful killing and willfully causing serious injuries
• intentionally attacking Red Cross personnel or institutions.

Hamas and other armed groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad are accused of:

• intentionally attacking Israeli civilians
• using Palestinian civilians as human shields
• willfully depriving civilians of the rights to a fair trial
• willful killing
• torture or inhuman treatment
• “outrages upon personal dignity,” which refers to humiliating and degrading treatment.



Masked Hamas members carry a model of a rocket during a rally in the central Gaza Strip on December 12, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

The prosecutor makes note of the fact that the IDF has itself launched investigations into alleged misconduct by its members and "the existence of pending proceedings in relation to other allegations". This is relevant since the ICC can proceed with an investigation only should a government fail to investigate allegations of war crimes brought against it. Accordingly, Ms.Bensouda noted she will continue to review the "scope and genuineness of relevant domestic proceedings" yet ongoing.


On the other hand, no question remains that the crimes alleged to have been committed by Palestinian groups in Gaza are not under investigation, and as a result the ICC can contemplate moving along with an investigation into their conflict activities. What the prosecutor fixes on is that by promoting the settlement movement Israel may have committed itself to being investigated since that too is considered a war crime according to the Rome Statute where the "transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" is considered a war crime.

Which, of course, leads one to muse why it is that the ICC has not sought to investigate either Russia or Turkey for such crimes, not merely alleged to have occurred, but that have occurred; in Turkey's case its longstanding invasion of Cyprus, and for Russia, its violent incursion into Georgia's South Ossetia and Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, for starters, clear violations of international law, whereas the so-called Palestinian Territories remain suggested for a Palestinian state yet that nascent state remains in limbo as long as the Palestinian Authority seeks legitimacy by all means other than coming to a two-state agreement with Israel, to jettison its never-ending war with Israel.

Further, there is the future prospect of Ms.Bensouda committing to probe alleged crimes said to have been committed by IDF troops with the use of "non-lethal and lethal means" to fend off Palestinians from Gaza incited by Hamas to commit to weekly riots, challenging Israel's borders with the intention of crossing into Israel proper for nefarious purposes, some of which have succeeded through the use of incendiary devices to burn and destroy Israeli farmlands and terrorize its population with countless rocket fire.

The ongoing "march of Return" speaks volumes about the Palestinian determination to take all the land upon which modern Israel was reunited with a portion of her geographical Judean heritage.

For over seven years a bloody civil war has raged in Syria, destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands, displacing millions representing at least half of the pre-conflict population, creating refugees of millions of Syrian Sunni Muslims with the Shiite regime having declared an all-out war on all Syrians critical of the regime of Bashar al-Assad who has stopped at nothing to butcher Syrians, employing chemical agents, bombing hospitals, arresting and torturing those he identifies as enemies, labelling protesters as "terrorists".

In China, Iran, North Korea and elsewhere massive human rights violations are incurred with impunity. Where is the Hague's ICC there?

Dedicated to prosecuting the "most serious crimes of international concern", the International Criminal Court is content to investigate a Western democracy pushed to the wall to defend itself and its population against organizations known to be terrorists and renowned for the depth of their brutality. In a defensive war, one of many, imposed upon Israel by its neighbours, the IDF fought and won the territory that is now in dispute. Any other nation under similar circumstances, having defended itself and fought to retain territory would be legally building homes on it, with not a murmur of dissent from the international community.

Palestinian protesters run for cover from tear gas canisters during fired by Israeli forces during clashes following a demonstration marking the first anniversary of the “March of Return” protests, near the border with Israel east of Gaza City on March 30, 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

The ICC has allowed itself willingly, to be used by the Palestinian Authority when Ramallah considered The Hague yet another arena of convenience for it to gain points against Israel. The request by the PA for the ICC to investigate Israeli 'war crimes' could have been set aside, the case rejected with use of the most obvious argument -- that the ICC lacks jurisdiction since Palestine is not a state. The prosecutor now awaits an ICC legal ruling whether to proceed.