Published: 25 November 2024
Last updated: 26 November 2024
There has been uproar in the Jewish world about the accusations of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which have been levelled at Israel and its call for the arrests of Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.
The ICC was established in 2002 on the basis of the Rome Statute four years earlier. Its role was to make a ruling on a state’s practices if there was no independent domestic court to carry out this legal task. The ICC often operated when third world dictatorships refused to act or put forward compliant judges who simply followed orders. The United Kingdom and Australia are two of the 123 countries which were signatories to the Rome Statute which established the ICC.
Israel and the United States, however, refused to sign, as did the entire Arab world, with the exception of Jordan and Tunisia. The ICC further added “the State of Palestine” as a signatory in 2015 and “the crime of aggression” in 2017. Many subsequently argued that the state of Palestine did not actually exist.
The outcome of the ICC’s ruling means that if Netanyahu decides to visit any of these 123 countries, he is liable to be apprehended. This was the reason why Vladimir Putin, a fellow accused, did not dare visit South Africa some months ago.
Several European countries such as Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia and the Netherlands appeared to be eager to comply with the ICC. In London, the signal from Downing Street was vague if not non-committal. It symbolised the dilemma for the British prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer who, on the one hand is a former Director of Public Prosecutions who has defended the rule of law, but on the other hand is a defender of the state of Israel but a critic of its government.
The Australian government, under Anthony Albanese, responded in a similar fashion, with Foreign Minister Penny Wong saying Australia “respects the independence of the ICC and its important role in upholding international law", while not commenting specifically on the arrest warrants.
