DayofPal– Global activists are ramping up their calls for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to uphold its mandate and hold war criminals, Israel PM Netanyahu and his army’s leader Gallant, accountable, regardless of their political status or influence.
This renewed push for action follows a period of silence after ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan sought arrest warrants for Israeli leaders accused of Genocide in Gaza.
In May, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan filed an request for arrest warrants against both Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. This move followed war crimes committed during Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
Despite these bold steps, the ICC has yet to issue the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, drawing widespread criticism. The delay has led many international legal scholars to question the court’s commitment to ensuring justice for war crimes.
Triestino Mariniello, lawyer representing Palestinian victims before the ICC, said that “Every Palestinian victim expected the court to act as promptly as possible when the genocide started last October, because the court has done the same in other contexts”, referring to Putin.
Zillur Rahman Wrote on X: “Any Palestinian that was the focus of attempts by the @IntlCrimCourt (#ICC) to seek warrants for their arrest for alleged war crimes, have now been killed. The only ones left on the charge sheet are Netanyahu and Gallant.”
Critics warn that the ICC’s failure to act undermines its founding purpose of preventing and prosecuting the world’s most serious crimes, as outlined in the Rome Statute.
One factor contributing to the delay is pressure made by western governments, mainly by the US Biden administration.
When the chamber accepted Khan’s request with a deadline of submission by 12 July, the UK then requested an extension until 26 July, then dropped it under the new Labour government.
Richard Falk, Former UN special rapporteur on Human Rights in occupied Palestine wrote on X that “The delay, compared to the Putin warrant, seems to support criticisms of ICC as subject to Western pressure, and hence not an objective institution but rather a policy instrument of the global West.”
Since Khan’s request in May, over 7,000 more Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks, bringing the death toll to +42,600, most of them women and children.
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