—Syed Badrul Ahsan—

The arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant over their role in causing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza should be a message for the world that no politician or warlord anywhere can get away with crime. The Israeli authorities have predictably condemned the ICC move as absurd. Their friends in Washington too are unhappy that the ICC has acted so decisively.

The arrest warrants, which ought to have come much earlier, at a time when thousands of Palestinians were being bombarded to death by the Israel Defence Forces, nevertheless are welcome. And the decision is welcome because it now prevents Netanyahu from travelling to or over any of the 124 member states of the ICC. All these 124 member states of the ICC are now obliged to place Netanyahu under arrest should he be spotted in the territory of any one of them. Indeed, a spokesperson for the British Prime Minister has hinted that if Netanyahu travels to the UK, he would be placed under arrest.

In the more than a year which has elapsed since October 2023, Israel has killed with impunity no fewer than 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, apart from conducting ruthless military operations in the West Bank. In its mission of liquidating the leading figures of Hezbollah, the IDF has been consistently violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon, where large sections of Beirut have been pounded to rubble. In all these months, a significant number of leading Hamas figures have been killed by targeted Israeli attacks. Israel in this one-year-plus has turned into a present and clear danger to peace in the Middle East and indeed in the world as a whole.

The ICC arrest warrants should give pause to Netanyahu, his government and his friends in the West about the future. No serious effort has been expended by the West, particularly by the Biden administration in Washington, to compel Netanyahu to call a halt to the murder of Palestinians. UN relief operations have come under Israeli assault in Gaza; Palestinians have been subjected to starvation; journalists have fallen in the line of duty. And yet all that Washington and Israel’s other friends have harped on is the Hamas attack on Israel of October 2023. Israel’s abrasive ambassador to the United Nations has brazenly called for the resignation of Secretary General Antonio Guterres because Guterres has always insisted on an end to Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

The move by the ICC resonates with people and political leaders around the world. It should now be an instrument that will check the bellicose behaviour of the Israeli leadership, that will have it feel the shame that comes from an expression of international opprobrium. It may well be that Netanyahu and Gallant will never be taken into custody by the ICC, for these two men will from now on be very careful about their overseas travels. But that stamp of shame is there, one which has placed Netanyahu and Gallant forever into a circle of historical humiliation. For all the 124 member nations of the ICC, it becomes important that they put into place all necessary measures to apprehend Netanyahu should he be seen or arrive in their territory.

For the United States, which has never joined the ICC and has always been dismissive of it, the ICC warrants against Netanyahu ought to be cause for a rethink among policymakers in Washington. The Americans cheered when the ICC went for sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine, a rare moment when Washington observed the ICC in a positive manner. Putin’s military action aroused the fury of politicians in Washington and so the ICC move against him was welcome. That Putin could not travel to very many countries after the warrant was served on him made Putin’s enemies happy to no end. But now, with the American leadership shocked at the warrants against Netanyahu, it is once more hypocrisy which comes in where wisdom should have been.

One is not quite certain if the arrest warrants will serve as a break on Israeli genocide operations in Gaza. But what is obvious is that in light of the warrants, Washington should be exercising its influence on Netanyahu by telling him that enough damage has been done by Israel in Gaza and that it is time to heed the message coming from the rest of the world. There is of course the possibility that the incoming hardline Trump administration will be vocal in its defence of Israel. Indeed, the appointment of Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel is a dark hint of how the Trump presidency will diplomatically shield Israel from the rest of the world.

Huckabee has no qualms about referring to occupied Arab land as Judea and Samaria. He is a throwback to Menachem Begin, who consistently spoke of Judea and Samaria rather than of land which Israel occupied during the June 1967 war. With Huckabee as US ambassador in Israel, therefore, one knows where the danger lies in the coming days. Nevertheless, the ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant should have Trump’s foreign policy team go for a rethink on the incoming President’s Middle East agenda.

One must, at this point, acknowledge the meaningful efforts that a now embattled prosecutor Karim Khan expended in getting the ICC to act against the brutal Israeli forces murdering Palestinians. Khan has done a splendid job despite the brickbats thrown at him by Israel and its friends. He has let governments everywhere know that no one who commits wrong, who commits genocide and undermines human rights can expect to get away with such atrocious behaviour and will be made to pay in the court of global opinion.

Postscript: In the late 1990s, Henry Kissinger arrived in Paris and checked into his hotel room. Within minutes, he was informed that a warrant of arrest had been served on him over his role in Chile in the 1970s, when he served as US Secretary of State. Kissinger took the very next flight out of France for the United States. In the remaining years of his life, he limited the number of his travels abroad and largely confined himself to speaking and lecturing in America.

In 1998, the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon issued an indictment seeking the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who was then on a visit to London. Pinochet was placed under house arrest by the British authorities. He was released a year and a half later and permitted to return to Chile.

___________________________

Syed Badrul Ahsan writes on politics, diplomacy and history