Afrasianet - The International Criminal Court (ICC) has finally accepted Prosecutor Karim Khan's request since May to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
In the same context, an arrest warrant was also issued for the so-called chief of staff of the military wing of the Qassam Brigades, Muhammad Deif, who Israel had previously announced as assassinating in a targeting that led to the death and injury of hundreds months ago in Mawasi Khan Yunis.
The focus of the memoirs was on an accusation of war crimes amounting to genocide, including starving an entire people and denying them their right to access the necessities of their lives, and immediately attention was mainly focused on Israel and how it would deal with this decision, which in the international arena is like an earthquake, just as in Israel it is considered a slap whose consequences are difficult to imagine.
Netanyahu, known for his rhetorical power, could not find better than describing the decision as the new "Dreyfus trial", comparing himself to the French Jewish officer who was tried in 1859 because he was Jewish, and this characterization was a prelude to considering the decision anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish and anti-human civilization and a black day in the history of civilized peoples.
A few months ago, Netanyahu called the ICC prosecutor's request for arrest warrants "absurd and false. Netanyahu followed in such descriptions all the poles of the political arena in Israel, who rose to defend what they considered "Israel's right to defend itself" against barbarism and obscurantism, and against those who seek to remove it from the face of the earth.
The arrest warrants happened to come shortly after America vetoed a resolution in the Security Council, which all council members agreed met with the requirements of international law for a ceasefire and for the prevention of famine and extermination.
Not only did the Biden administration fail international law in the Security Council, but it also violated US law when Congress voted against a bill banning the export of weapons to Israel, for violating US law, which prohibits the provision of aid and weapons to those who violate international law and violate human rights.
It also coincided with the widest incitement campaign against the Israeli government's legal adviser as more staff in the Prime Minister's Office were brought to trial or criminal investigation on charges of fraud and attempting to manipulate Israeli public opinion.
It is known that the Netanyahu government has been engaged in a wide struggle against the Israeli judicial institution for almost two years to politicize it on the one hand and to restrict its independence on the other hand as part of what is known as "judicial reform." Only in recent days has the campaign against the attorney general intensified, going so far as to distribute slogans stating that "Netanyahu's blood is on your hands," to prevent her from continuing investigations and intimidate her.
Because Netanyahu has long faced corruption charges in more than one case, he is working through others to legislate laws that would allow him to evade prosecution, and it is often said in Israel that prolonging the war and Netanyahu's evasion of reaching exchange or settlement agreements is due to his desire to evade prosecution.
Israel expected through judicial, political and media campaigns to prevent the issuance of arrest warrants by intimidating the judges of the court and by using the influence of America, and not only that, but according to various parties, it sought to intimidate and blackmail the prosecutor even through what has become known as the "sex case" that Karim Khan was accused of committing. This case was among Netanyahu's justifications for rejecting the memos as coming from a "corrupt" party.
However, the court's audacity has previously been to issue an ultimatum even to members of the US Congress accusing them of violating international justice, and Khan himself, in his first comments after the issuance of the arrest warrants, announced that the court continues to investigate war crimes committed in the territory of the "State of Palestine" in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the Gaza Strip.
Thus, Karim Khan waved the red scarf in front of the Israeli bull at the height of his agitation, and this explains part of the severity in the Israeli official reactions to the decision and the tendency to rely on what America will provide, which seemed agitated no less than Israel on this subject, as evidenced by the official statements of the United States.
Of the more than 120 signatories and ratifications of the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court, only two countries, Hungary and Argentina, announced that they would not abide by the resolution, and most of the world, especially in Europe, rushed to declare their commitment to international law and the court's decision.
The first result was the annulment of a planned visit to Israel by the Dutch Foreign Minister, who was the first European figure to welcome the Court's decision and declare his commitment to its implementation, and then European positions rolled from the Union's foreign affairs coordinator, Josep Borrell, to the foreign ministers of Ireland, Spain and others.
The issuance of arrest warrants was an acknowledgment of Israel's failure to prevent the prosecution of its leaders, which opens the door wide to the prosecution of all its nationals involved in the war crimes described, as the decision from the media and political point of view puts a black flag over Israel, its leaders and policies, and announces the beginning of the end of Israel's impunity, and it is clear that this decision also puts Israel on the same track that eventually led to the dismantling of the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Regardless of the Israeli leadership's conviction that the whole world does not care as long as America stands by it, Israel does not live inside America and is forced to take into account the positions of the countries of the world. But the decision also means America's failure to intimidate and blackmail the court and force it to keep Israel out of the sway of international law, and in this sense America is no longer Israel's protective shield before the international judicial system, and perhaps also in the international political arena.
In essence, the decision means the international judicial system's lack of confidence in the independence and justice of the Israeli judiciary, because the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court begins in light of the lack of local justice, and this in itself loses Israel's eternal claim to be "the only democracy in the Middle East", and reclassifies it as a racist and reactionary dictatorship and regime.
According to Israeli media, the immediate meaning of the arrest warrants is that Netanyahu and Galant are now imprisoned in Israel and will not be able to travel abroad, certainly not to any of the court's 124 member states, including most European countries, most African countries, and most South American countries.
Netanyahu and Galant can visit one of these countries, but only if we can convince them not to implement the international judicial order, and "in practice, issuing orders means that Netanyahu has become a pariah leader" in the world. According to Israeli perceptions, Netanyahu, for example, could visit the United States, but before that he must make sure that the countries in whose airspace he passes will not land and arrest him, nor can he often give a speech at the United Nations, which is committed before others to international resolutions.
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Israel is currently grappling with how to confront the arrest warrants, fearing even more that they will be a prelude to secret arrest warrants for political and military figures who have played roles in committing or instigating the crimes described. It is known that the Israeli media, which published racist statements and positions, and treated Palestinians in Gaza as if they were "animals", formed a strong basis for leveling and later accusations against other politicians, and the criminal acts that have been going on for more than a year in Gaza have provided a lot of Clues against a lot of military personnel.
There are those in Israel who call for caution to be treated with the court's decisions, fearing that ignoring them will lead to consequences, including expanding the scope of the ban on the export or import of arms to and from it, and it is not only related to arms exports, as it may extend to patterns of economic boycotts, otherwise the decision is certainly a great embarrassment, especially for Arab countries that have established peace with Israel or entered into the Abraham Accords for normalization with it.
However, Israel's ruling right is acting with increasing arrogance, especially after the election of Trump, who has shown contempt for international institutions. But America's inclination to maintain its international leadership requires it to take the world into account, especially after its inability to separate Western Europe from both China and Russia on the issue of Israeli war crimes.
He explained that the positions expressed by most Western European countries testify that a fight that is not weak will begin from now on in everything related to Israel, and in a sense if the Al-Aqsa flood has shown that Israel now needs American and Western protection, the court's decision showed that Israel has become a moral burden and not a strategic asset.
On the other hand, the issuance of the arrest warrants proves that America, which rushed hard to protect Israel from this court, failed in this task, and this leads some rationalists in Israel to question the approach of total dependence only on America in all fields.
Even in the eyes of those who believe that Israel can do whatever it wants, there is growing doubt about this, especially after this American impotence, and everyone will wait not for what Israel will do, but for what America will do, which threatens the court with woe and perseverance, and this brings positions from countries that have declared their support for the court, an independent judiciary, an approach to accountability, and no impunity.
It is not excluded that the decisions of this court will mark the beginning of a new global polarization that weakens America's position in the world if it does not rush to remedy the situation and get closer to its allies and countries to the world.
In any case, the ICC does not have forces that can bring in and arrest Netanyahu, Galant and any other Israeli war criminals, but there is a moral obligation on the part of the signatories to the Rome Statute to implement the court's decisions, and this leads either to reducing the international movement of Netanyahu and the Israelis, or to their persistence in aggression and crimes until different balances of power emerge. However, it is clearer than ever that Israel is rapidly heading towards an almost inevitable fate: the fate of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Really on herself and her family she went crazy Baraqish.