Afrasianet - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responsible for the worst massacre in history against Palestinians, is now strutting across the United States after violating international justice by traveling to Hungary and flying over French soil, and wondering if he could still be stopped.

In an article by Joseph Convavro, Israel has been doing since it launched a never-ending war of revenge in Gaza, unilaterally violated the truce, shot at ambulance crews, buried the bodies of rescuers, doctors and emergency vehicle wreckage, killed more than 200 journalists, bombed more than 20 "community kitchens" and denied all humanitarian aid for more than a month, raising the specter of famine again.

Israel has also destroyed vast areas of land and ordered them to be turned into "killing zones" that anyone who enters becomes a target, having lost all "moral judgment" through its continued use of "human shields."

Can we imagine that the person responsible for all these atrocities, after being ordered arrested by the  International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, ends up in an EU member state, choosing to withdraw from the Rome Statute instead of arresting him? 

Then this person goes with bravado, flying over France and Italy without shame, to the capital of the world's greatest power and receives him as an ally and friend, and offers him millions of dollars in military equipment that will help him shed more of the blood of the Palestinian people and render the Gaza Strip uninhabitable.

Personal immunity disputed

Patrick Zand, president of the Lawyers for the Respect of International Law (JORDI) legal network, wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron that France had "seriously violated its international legal obligations as a state party to the Rome Statute" by not arresting Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Shortly after Netanyahu's sentencing, France declared that he enjoyed "immunity" as head of government of a non-signatory state, but the ICC reaffirmed that "personal immunity, including that of heads of state, is not enforceable before the ICC."

These events confirm that the current French diplomacy is hypocritical, and compared this position to what Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur  on the Palestinian territories, said about France's position on the Israeli army's killing of rescue workers, when she expressed her "feelings" as if these rescuers died of a heart attack during an Israeli intervention.

It is difficult, between the unwavering support of the United States that can be seen as complicity in the destruction and marginalization of the Palestinian people, and the indifference or cowardice of other powers, to know how  the international community can  arrest Netanyahu in a geopolitical context in which the right of force increasingly prevails over the power of right.

French-Israeli sociologist Eva Eluz has a pro-war stance in Gaza, although she refused to withdraw her signature when Netanyahu's education minister, to receive Israel's prestigious award, conditioned her on withdrawing her signature on a petition addressed to the International Criminal Court in 2021 demanding an examination  of possible war crimes committed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank. 

Since Oct. 7 and on several occasions, Eva Eluz has shown her support for Israeli policy without much sympathy for the destruction of Gaza, saying she is disappointed with international tribunals and wondering why Israel is almost the only country to be charged.

Complicit international diplomacy

But, in addition to presenting Israel, which has military power capable of inflicting serious damage on its adversaries and benefits from American weapons and umbrella, as a "small" state, Eva Illuz has embraced the vague narrative of the "Jewish state," ignoring the fact that the ICC recently managed to indict a strongman like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This pro-war stance in Gaza, taken by Eva Illuz like the vast majority of Israelis, raises questions about the possibility of relying on Israeli society to put an end to Netanyahu's dirty work, especially since international diplomacy is complicit or indifferent to the massacre in the Palestinian Strip, which means that "Netanyahu is not fighting a war alone – as historian Ofri Ilani points out – and would not have done so without having legitimacy to do so. Millions of Israelis are willing to engage in or support this war."

Can we hear MK and former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni opposing the continuation of the war in Gaza and protesting the "violent campaign of destruction and murder perpetrated by Jews against Arabs" in the West Bank? Can a woman, who is currently Netanyahu's archenemy Gali Bharav Miara, not support the "principle of action against the Gaza Strip," the "expansion and support of settlements," or the government's policy on humanitarian aid to Gaza?

It is necessary to build hopes on the few voices that condemn the crime committed in its name in Gaza, and fear the consequences that may ensue beyond the Palestinian people, as in the video currently circulating on social media.