{"id":104965,"date":"2023-07-01T17:05:21","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T15:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=104965"},"modified":"2023-06-22T20:31:23","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T18:31:23","slug":"16-05-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=104965","title":{"rendered":"Israel and the ICC: A lesson in hypocrisy, double-standards and discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Israel and the ICC: A lesson in hypocrisy, double-standards and discrimination<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Talia Einhorn <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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International law guarantees each state its right to self-defense, and yet Israel has been repeatedly condemned for doing just that. The ICC has no jurisdiction to investigate Israel<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Talia Einhorn, Ordinary Professor (em.), Ariel University\/ Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Management and Titular Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

1. Introduction<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In 1998, I co-edited a book, honoring Israel\u2019s 50th<\/sup> Anniversary, entitled \u2013 Israel among the Nations<\/em>. Professor Alan Dershowitz aptly named his contribution \u2013 \u201cIsrael \u2013 The Jew among the Nations\u201d.[1]<\/a> Dershowitz pointed out that \u201cno civilized nation in the history of the world which has faced comparable threats to its survival \u2013 both external and internal \u2013 has ever made greater efforts at, and has ever come closer to, achieving the highest norms of the rule of law. Yet no civilized nation in the history of the world \u2013 including totalitarian and authoritarian regimes \u2013 has ever been as repeatedly, unfairly and hypocritically condemned and criticized by the international community as Israel has been over the years\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

The attitude adopted by the ICC and its Prosecutor towards Israel offers another exemplary case in point.<\/span><\/p>\n

On February 5, 2021, a three-judge ICC panel, decided by majority, against the well-reasoned, dissenting opinion of the panel\u2019s presiding Judge Peter Kovacs (165 pages), that the Court has jurisdiction over war crimes allegedly committed by Israel in Judea & Samaria, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Old City, as of June 13, 2014.[2]<\/a> Following the panel\u2019s ruling, the ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced her decision to open an investigation against Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his speech at Yad Va-Shem<\/em> last week, commemorating the plight of Jews in the Shoah<\/em>, Prime Minster Netanyahu criticized, rightly and emphatically, the ICC\u2019s outrageous decision to investigate Israel for potential war crimes against Palestinians.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Jewish people were defenseless in the face of the Nazis but are no longer so, and have every right to defend themselves from their enemies,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In line with PM Netanyahu\u2019s statement, last Friday, April 9, 2021, Israel sent its official response to the Court\u2019s decision, contesting the Court\u2019s jurisdiction, rejecting the claims that Israel has committed war crimes, while stressing that the Jewish state is committed to the rule of law and capable of investigating itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

This paper addresses the \u201ccrimes\u201d allegedly committed by Israel (Part 2), the (lack of) jurisdiction by the ICC (Part 3), and my conclusions (Part 4).<\/span><\/p>\n

2. The \u201ccrimes\u201d allegedly committed by Israel<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The ICC was established under the Rome Statute,[3]<\/a> with the power to exercise jurisdiction over persons who had committed the most serious crimes of international concern to the international community as a whole (Art. 5(1)). In its detailed provisions, the Statute addresses the following crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression (undefined).<\/span><\/p>\n

However, on Egypt\u2019s initiative, shortly before finalizing the text of the Rome Statute, Article 8(2)(b)(viii) was inserted into the Statute, defining, among the most serious crimes, \u201cthe transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its civilian population into the territory that it occupies.\u201d This provision was inserted with the sole object and purpose to target Israel,[4]<\/a> by rendering the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (and, in the past, the Gaza Strip as well) war crimes and anyone who lives in settlements beyond the 1949 ceasefire lines (the \u201cgreen line\u201d), or who fights to defend them \u2013 a war criminal, even if the settlements were not established by the State of Israel, even if the initiative to settle came from the settlers, and even if their establishment involved no violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention (which does not apply to the lands of Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Old City), or of any accepted rule of international law.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is hard to imagine that the existence of Jewish life in the Old City of Jerusalem, Hebron, the city of our Patriarchs, or anywhere else in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, are those most serious crimes against the international community as a whole, that the Rome Statute intended to address.<\/span><\/p>\n

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