The IJL calls on the Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to reject the Prosecutor’s request to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, and for law-abiding states, organizations, and individuals in the international community to oppose the abuse of international law.
As legal practitioners and academic jurists committed to the rule of law, we are deeply concerned that the ICC Prosecutor’s decision is an affront to the legal systems of law-abiding democratic states such as Israel’s, and undermines the Court’s integrity and ability to deliver justice.
It turns the Court into a tool in the strategy of those seeking to make cynical use of the law as a weapon against democratic states.
The Prosecutor’s request is not an equal application of the law but a distortion of it. There can be no moral or legal equivalence between Hamas – a terrorist organization that commits unspeakable atrocities, still holds 128 hostages, targets civilians, intentionally hampers attempts to provide the civilian population with humanitarian aid, and deliberately misuses international law – and Israel, a democratic state committed to international law and to defending its territory and citizens from a consorted attack from all its borders aimed at its destruction, while mitigating harm to civilians exploited as human shields.
No equation can be drawn between a terrorist organization with evident disregard for the law, and a democratic state with an independent, robust legal system.
For the full statement, click here.