Israel’s response to the news that the ICC prosecutor has sought arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity could have been expected (Israel calls on ‘civilised nations’ to boycott ICC arrest warrants against its leaders, 21 May). From asserting that the warrants would hinder Israel’s right to self-defence and create an offensive equivalence with Hamas’s crimes to the preposterous smearing of the prosecutor as antisemitic, Israel’s claims can be easily refuted.
The US, in its reaction, reverted to imperial type. Having welcomed the ICC’s decision in March 2023 to issue an arrest warrant for international crimes against Vladimir Putin in respect of the war in Ukraine, it now called the ICC’s request “outrageous”. It claimed that faith should be had in Israel’s judicial system to deal with international crimes, although all a neutral observer can see is a history of impunity. In short, the US has reacted with customary hostility when the ICC’s actions do not suit its interests.
What is extraordinary, however, is to see supposedly staunch ICC supporters such as Germany echo some of Israel’s claims in criticising the prosecutor, even though it clarified that it would abide by the law and execute the arrest warrants if issued. Israel’s call on “nations of the civilised world” to boycott the ICC betrays a colonial mindset. In international relations and law, the trope of civilisation has a long history of justifying hegemony and the use of violence to establish and maintain it. It is time that these imperial and colonial mindsets are laid to rest. The issuing of the arrest warrants by the ICC’s pre-trial chamber would be an important step in that direction.
Dr Lutz Oette
Professor of international human rights law, Soas University of London
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