The management oversight and legislative body of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has expressed concern over threats by US and Israeli officials as it ponders issuing arrest warrants for top Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu.
“The presidency regrets any attempts to undermine the court’s independence, integrity and impartiality,” the Presidency of the Assembly of States Parties said in a statement. “Some statements may constitute threats of retaliation against the court and its officials, in the event the Court exercises its judicial functions as mandated in the Rome Statute.”
The governing body said the court was established as a result of painstaking negotiations involving all member states and has a mandate to “end impunity for the most serious international crimes that threaten peace, security and the well-being of the world”.
US officials, who welcomed the ICC’s arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin after the invasion of Ukraine, have threatened ICC executives and their families with repercussions should they choose to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials.
Not all member states, The US doesn't recognize the ICC
"The US participated in the negotiations that led to the creation of the court. However, in 1998 the US was one of only seven countries - along with China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, and Yemen - that voted against the Rome Statute."
UN experts decry UNRWA funding freeze despite no ties to ‘terrorism’
Dozens of countries froze funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) shortly after Israel claimed members of its staff had worked with Hamas and participated in the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Some – including the largest donor, the US – still refuse to restart payments to UNRWA, the main agency getting aid to besieged Palestinians in Gaza, “despite an independent review finding no evidence of staff ties to terrorism”, 28 UN special rapporteurs and experts said in a statement.
The experts “welcomed the review’s conclusions that UNRWA has a very developed approach to neutrality, with effective control mechanisms to address neutrality concerns”. “This indicates that UNRWA has yet again been targeted politically at critical moments – raising serious questions about accountability for the damage inflicted both on UNRWA and on the Palestinians in Gaza that the agency serves,” the experts said.
Incidentally, about the same amount the floating pier cost to build is what the US normally contributes to UNWRA. UNWRA can do a lot more with that 320 million dollars though.
MEP calls on Irish government to suspend US military flights
Clare Daly, a left-wing Irish member of the European Parliament, says the Irish government should suspend US military flights passing through Shannon in County Clare to stop the killing in Gaza.
The lawmaker, an outspoken backer of a Gaza ceasefire, writes the Irish government missed its chance during conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine.
“For god’s sake, can they finally do it during the Gaza genocide?”
The US military has been sending major shipments of arms to Israel for the war on Gaza, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
UN aid chief says ‘world has lost its way’ as people in Gaza suffer
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, says all predictions about the catastrophic consequences of an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah are “coming true”.
In a post on social media, Griffiths – who has long warned of the fallout should Rafah’s population of displaced people face a military onslaught – said there is “almost no food left and humanitarian efforts are stuck”.
“The world has lost its way and needs to return to the norms we created,” he said. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Griffiths said famine in Gaza was an “immediate, clear and present danger”. “Facts on the ground tell us we don’t need to be scientists to see the consequence of the removal of food,” he said.
