On 21 November 2024 judges at the International Criminal Court finally issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli politicians Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. The ICC’s detailed press release is HERE. Countries who are signed up to the court are obliged henceforth to arrest those individuals if they can and take them to the ICC at the Hague.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign comment aptly: “This announcement places Britain in the grotesque position of continuing to sell weapons and provide diplomatic support to a state which is not only on trial for genocide but is led by a man who from today is a fugitive from international justice.”
It was to be predicted that various national leaders would try to back away from the ICC process. The French President has said that Netanyahu would have ‘diplomatic immunity’ in France. The British government are saying that there would have to be a separate process to issue a British arrest warrant, leaving it vague as to what that process would be. The new leader of Germany has brazenly signified an intention to invite Netanyahu to visit.
It is also argued that as Israel is not a party to the ICC then its leaders cannot be prosecuted by it. None of these ‘difficulties’ have arisen over issuing warrants against third world despots or the Russian leadership. Is there no part of international law that Israel’s supporters have to respect?