50 No. 72 JUSTICE A companion example of this absurdity is the threat by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of “crimes against humanity.”20 The same charge is being leveled at the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. While the ICC is not an appendage of the United Nations, the two share a working agreement and its legal assault on Israeli leaders falls very much in sync with the UN’s formal legal organ, the ICJ. The specific charges against Israel include “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare as a war crime,” and “extermination and/or murder…including the context of deaths caused by starvation as a crime against humanity.” Something like this occurred in the not-too-distant past. Some twenty years ago a Belgian court, under the universal jurisdiction provision, attempted to try thenPrime Minister Ariel Sharon and Gen. Amos Yaron for “war crimes” committed in Lebanon during the 1982 war against the PLO. Here again, the absurdity and transparency of leveling such accusations at Israel and equating its leaders – who are directing a defensive war against a terrorist organization that is accountable to no one, save for its paymasters in Tehran – with the mastermind of the October 7 massacres, should be sufficient reason for serious persons to deride the entire process. In addition, of course, there are the updated findings that there was no starvation in northern Gaza that derived from Israeli policy. Several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Austria, and Czechia deplored the moves by the ICC to issue arrest warrants. Several other countries backed the intent of the court’s action with some expressing support in the “integrity” of the court. Efforts to call off the ICC include proposals in the U.S. Congress to sanction judges of the court. Whether or not warrants will be served, the specter of the universal jurisdiction episode has reemerged. Leaving aside the two Israeli leaders named in the case, what will happen when IDF soldiers travel abroad? Will they be detained or arrested in Madrid, Dublin, or Oslo for having served in a “genocidal” war in Gaza? Will any Israeli who is serving in the current government face the same scenario? Regardless of whether these warrants are ever issued, advancing unsubstantiated charges and continuing to press ahead with them after they have been debunked, rises to the IHRA definition of antisemitism and also does significant damage to Israel. The blood libels of medieval times live on, albeit with a modern-day wrapper. Another recurrent, unabashed agent of delegitimization 20. Jeremy Sharon, “Does ICC Prosecutor Khan have a case against Netanyahu and Gallant? Experts doubt it,” TIMES OF ISRAEL, May 21, 2024, available at https://www. timesofisrael.com/does-icc-prosecutor-khan-have-a-caseagainst-netanyahu-and-gallant-experts-doubt-it/ 21. “United Nations fact-finding mission,” WIKIPEDIA, available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_ Nations_fact-finding_mission of Israel within the UN system is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese. Her tenure has been marked by a series of highly biased, extremist statements. In a report she submitted after October 7 entitled “Anatomy of a Genocide,” Albanese blamed Israeli government officials and the IDF with purposefully engaging in “an attempt to legitimize genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.” The Commission of Inquiry (COI) The Commission of Inquiry (COI)21 was created by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2021, for the expressed purpose of permanently investigating “the Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and in Israel.” This means that it is seeking to act as a full-time censurer for Israeli human rights abuses and violations of international law. The COI’s three-person panel, led by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay of South Africa, is openly biased against Israel. She once famously criticized the United States for providing Israel with the Iron Dome air defense system but offering “no such protection to Gazans against (Israeli) shelling,” and has accused Israel of “apparent targeting of (Palestinian) children playing.” Another COI member, Miloon Kothari, charged the Jewish lobby with controlling social media. It should come as no surprise that in its June 2024 report to the UNHRC, COI stated that Both the October attack in Israel and Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza must be seen in context. These events were preceded by decades of violence, unlawful occupation and Israel’s denial of the Palestinians’ right to selfdetermination, manifested in continuous forced displacement, dispossession… and systemic discrimination and oppression of the Palestinian people.
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