Israeli military and others indicted for war crimes by International Court. Several Israeli leaders are identified, as is Hamas (CNN) Accusations are denied by Israel but Israel declines to officially defend against those charges. While we have seen Israeli’s position, we’ve also seen and heard their actual behavior in videos, etc. it’s time to put up or shut up on these issues. Without a formal defense, without real discovery we are left with nothing. Interestingly let’s see if Netanyahu goes to a country that will extradite him.
Seems I have misinterpreted the ICJ order in an earlier post. I thought they said clearly to halt the operation in Rafah but apparently the order was ambiguous and up for interpretation. Media which typically hires legal experts mostly says the order was to halt the operation. Some of the judges said it was a call similar to the first order, to simply refrain from committing certain actions.
In any case, as we've seen in the interview between Christiane Amanpour and ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, the issue at heart seems to be that Israel simply employs an enforcement method the ICC does not approve of.
As in any armed force, the IDF has its own investigative bodies, investigative procedures, and a sort of justice system. From a certain rank, a commander can court martial his own troops.
It is expected that cases of severe violations/crimes be transferred to the civilian justice system.
For example in 2016 an IDF soldier Elor Azaria killed an already neutralized terrorist, which otherwise according to standard procedure would have to be arrested and treated. His case was judged by the supreme court.
Israeli soldiers constantly post videos filmed in Gaza. For the IDF this is an OPSEC issue, which arguably it isn't doing enough to curb. But is that something the supreme court should even handle? I don't think so. It has to be an internal change in the IDF to enforce better discipline.
To call on the Israeli supreme court, in 2024, to intervene in such cases is a strategic mistake. First, it would undermine Israel's own democracy. The Israeli supreme court has been weakened throughout 2023 and the general public protested against that all the way until October 7th. These protests led to Netanyahu losing a lot of power. From 64 seats in the current Knesset, to 43 in the polls. Through populist strategies Netanyahu managed to increase the average to 45, Biden's policies helped him climb to 48, and I'm sure if the supreme court was then busy prosecuting hundreds if not thousands of soldiers - i.e. the people, for posting stupid tiktok videos, I'm sure Netanyahu's popularity would spike again to at least 50-52.
And second, it simply ignores the reality that war is not politically correct. People say things out of anger, but their actions are different. You just can't expect people who put their lives at risk, spend so many months, even years under crushing stress - to remain politically correct. They're put involuntarily in an unjust reality.
On the subject of the ICJ, I assume some of it has to do with the newly appointed president Nawaf Salam. He is a former Lebanese politician and diplomat and it was clear he would take a harsh stance toward Israel. During his years as Lebanese Prime Minister, Lebanon was in flagrant violation of UNSC resolution 1701.
