The Western alliance is divided on Israel, after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for PM Netanyahu over crimes against humanity in Gaza. US officials threaten sanctions.
By Ben Norton
Nov 24, 2024
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, charging them with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
This historic decision has led to a political split in the West. The European Union, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia have expressed support for the ICC.
On the other hand, the United States is openly attacking the ICC and threatening to impose sanctions.
US President Joe Biden blasted the ICC’s charges as “outrageous”. The White House said it “fundamentally rejects” the Court’s order.
Washington is working with Israel to make a list of ICC officials whom they plan to sanction.
This is deeply ironic, given that the Biden administration, and particularly Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have constantly claimed to uphold a so-called “rules-based international order”, while accusing US adversaries like China of supposedly violating it.
But it is not just the Democrats; the assault on the Hague is bipartisan in Washington.
Top officials nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, who will return to the White House in January 2025, have also threatened the ICC.
Trump’s pick to be national security advisor, the neoconservative war hawk Mike Waltz, vowed to impose sanctions on ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, while smearing the Court as “anti-semitic”.
The first Trump administration hit ICC personnel with sanctions in 2020, after the Court opened an investigation into accusations of war crimes committed by US-NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The Biden administration boasted of lifting these ICC sanctions in 2021, but is now considering returning to Trump’s extreme policy.
Some far-right members of Congress have gone even further. In response to the ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu this November, Republican Senator Tom Cotton threatened a military assault on the Hague.
Cotton referenced a law approved by the US government in 2002, known as the Hague Invasion Act (officially called the American Servicemembers Protection Act of 2002). This legislation “permits” the White House to unilaterally send troops to the Hague, in the Netherlands, to physically remove any officials from the United States or its allies who face justice at the ICC.
Countries in the Global South have long criticized the ICC, accusing it of bias in the interest of Western governments. The vast majority of officials tried at the court have been from African countries.
The decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials appears to be an attempt to save the international reputation of the Court.
Nevertheless, the ICC also faced criticism for delaying the arrest orders. Prosecutor Karim Khan initially announced the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as against a commander of the Palestinian armed group Hamas, back in May 2024. It took six months for the arrest warrants to finally be issued.
Throughout this time, the US government was putting significant pressure on the ICC, threatening personnel.
Senator Lindsey Graham warned in May that, “if they’ll do this to Israel, we’re next!”
In June, the US House of Representatives approved legislation that would impose sanctions on the ICC. The bill passed with support from more than 200 Republicans, along with 42 Democrats.
United Nations accuses Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza
The United Nations convened a special committee to investigate Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza, and it concluded in a November report that they are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians there”.
Israel’s leading human rights organization B’Tselem has warned that the Netanyahu regime is carrying out a concerted campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, expelling indigenous Palestinians from the home with plans to annex and colonize their land, so they can never return.
UN Secretary General António Guterres has called on the world to prevent Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
EU, UK, Canada, Australia support ICC, breaking with US
While the leaders of both major political parties in the United States are threatening the International Criminal Court in defense of Israel, some major Western allies have broken ranks.
Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom said they would abide by the ICC’s order and arrest Netanyahu if he entered their territory.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell likewise stated that Brussels would honor the arrest warrant, stressing, “The states that signed the Rome convention are obliged to implement the decision of the court. It’s not optional”.
The top EU diplomat pushed back against the Israeli regime’s baseless accusations of “anti-semitism”. Borrell asserted, “I have the right to criticize the decisions of the Israeli government, be it Mr Netanyahu or someone else, without being accused of antisemitism. This is not acceptable. That’s enough”.
Among EU members, the governments of Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland, and the Netherlands have publicly clarified that they would respect the ICC decision and arrest Netanyahu.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham responded to the countries that support the ICC by threatening to impose sanctions on them and “crush” their economies.
“To any ally — Canada, Britain, Germany, France — if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you”, Graham vowed on Fox News.
“We should crush your economy”, Graham said to the US allies. “Because we’re next”, he added in fear.
Far-right regimes in Hungary and Argentina back US attacks on ICC
Unlike the EU leadership and many European states, Germany has said it will not abide by the ICC’s order.
One EU member that has openly attacked the ICC is Hungary, which is governed by far-right leader Viktor Orbán, a close ally of Israel and an anti-Muslim demagogue. In defiance of the Hague, Orbán invited Netanyahu to visit Hungary.
Joining the US and Hungary in condemning the ICC was Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei, a self-declared “anarcho-capitalist”. Although Milei is a close Trump ally, he and Biden are in alliance on Israel.
In the UN General Assembly in September, Hungary and Argentina also sided with the United States in voting against a resolution that demanded an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories within 12 months.
Much of Europe abstained in this vote, however several key EU states endorsed the resolution, including Belgium, France, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.
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