‘An extraordinary, exceptional day for justice’
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, has praised the ICC’s decision to issue long-awaited arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders.
Bishara noted that many close observers, including himself, had been sceptical this would ever happen due to factors that include the long delay since the prosecutor submitted his request for the warrants in May, the re-election of Donald Trump as US president and allegations of sexual misconduct against the prosecutor.
“But at last, the people of Gaza, after a year of unfolding genocide, might be able to see their perpetrators face justice,” Bishara said.
He characterised this as a historic breakthrough, arguing that the ICC was initially conceived by Western leaders as a court to try global leaders, often from non-Western nations.
“That’s why it was easy for them to pursue Putin. But pursuing major Western allies like Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, it’s a first,” he said. “They will be pursued by the Interpol. It’s going to be difficult for Netanyahu to be travelling around.”
“This means he is no longer legitimate,” Bishara said, concluding: “The International Court of Justice will be looking at the genocide case differently now that the Israelis are accused of crimes against humanity.”
‘There’s definitely a case here’
We’ve spoken to Neve Gordon, professor of international law at Queen Mary University of London, about the ICC arrest warrants issued for Netanyahu and Gallant.
Al Jazeera: Can you break down what the ICC is accusing the Israeli leaders of and the difference between war crimes and crimes against humanity?
The difference between war crimes and crimes against humanity is that crimes against humanity are systematic; a war crime can be just an event.
What the prosecutor has accused Netanyahu and Gallant of are two major issues: One is using food and the denial of humanitarian aid as a weapon to advance starvation and reach Israel’s military objectives, … and the other one is these systematic attacks against hospitals and providing medical care to the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. Both lead to extermination and willful killing of the population.
Al Jazeera: How difficult will it be to prove this case in court?
I think there is ample evidence. The use of food as a weapon is not new in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel has been using food as a weapon in the Gaza Strip for close to 20 years at least. I think there’s ample evidence regarding how it has been used as a weapon, and I think also the intention of using it as a weapon is clear from statements made by Israeli leaders and from the practices of the Israeli military.
So I think it will be easy to prove that this is indeed a policy and strategy of the Israeli government and military.
Regarding the attacks on healthcare, the systematic nature of the attacks, the fact that practically all the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been targeted – many of them have been destroyed; others have been damaged – and that this is ongoing and, again, not something new in Israel’s strategies of warfare is easy to demonstrate, so I think there’s definitely a case here.
Al Jazeera: In practice, what is going to change after the issuing of the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant? What is the likelihood of this having any effect on the conflict in the Gaza Strip?
I think there is a likelihood. First, the signatories of the Rome Statute and members of the ICC are bound to arrest Gallant and Netanyahu if they travel to their country. It will limit dramatically the movement of these two people for the years to come.
But I think that by issuing the arrest warrants, the ICC has also made a certain demand on Western countries both in North America and throughout Europe. And that has to do with the kind of trade agreements that they have with Israel – first and foremost with the trade relating to arms.
If the leaders of Israel are charged with carrying out crimes against humanity by the ICC, it means that the weapons the European countries are sending to Israel are used to carry out crimes against humanity and they have to reassess all their trade of weapons with Israel from today and, I would say, stop sending these weapons.
