International Criminal Court to “Investigate” Israel

The International Criminal Court is a creature of the United Nations that came into existence in 2002. The ICC’s mission is to “bring to justice the perpetrators of the worst crimes known to humankind – war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.” Needless to say, it hasn’t had a lot of success in doing so, and has been deeply controversial from the beginning. The United States has never joined the ICC.

Israel hasn’t joined the ICC either, but the ICC’s chief prosecutor has nevertheless announced that she intends to investigate alleged Israeli “war crimes”:

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor announced on Friday she wants to open a full investigation into alleged Israeli “war crimes” in Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled territories.

“I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into the situation in Palestine,” ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement quoted by AFP.

“In brief, I am satisfied that war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip,” she added, without specifying the perpetrators of the alleged crimes.

If she is already “satisfied,” I am not sure why an investigation is required. There are technical issues to be resolved:

Bensouda added that before opening a full probe, she would ask the ICC to rule on the territory over which it has jurisdiction because of the “unique and highly contested legal and factual issues attaching to this situation.”
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The prosecutor added however that she did not require any authorization from judges to open a probe as there had been a referral from the Palestinian Authority, which joined the court in 2015 and has since filed a series of legal complaints with it against Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded that the ICC is trying to turn the right of Jews to live in biblical Israel into a war crime. I am not sure what the war is, but I suppose that is a minor point where the ICC is concerned.

This is one among many instances of the implacable hostility of international organizations toward Israel. The more ostensibly high-minded the organization, the more bitter its rage against the only Middle Eastern democracy, and one of the few countries in the region–if not the only one–to respect human rights.

Why the world’s liberals hate Israel is a question for psychologists. Happily, there isn’t much the ICC can do, tangibly. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of actual war crimes, most of which are of little or no concern to the world’s liberals. As for the United Nations, some would say the organization should look a little closer to home.

United Nations peacekeepers fathered hundreds of babies in Haiti then abandoned young mothers to lives of single parenthood and poverty, the academic leading a research study has told The Times.

Many of those impregnated were underage girls who traded sex for food or “for a few coins” as they struggled to survive in wake of political upheaval and natural disaster.

An extensive study into the impact of one of the UN’s longest peacekeeping deployments, published today on The Conversation academic website says “girls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated by peacekeepers and . . . ‘left in misery’ to raise their children alone”.

This is a common story. The opportunity to abuse young women in war zones is apparently the prime perk of being a U.N. “peacekeeper.” The idea that the U.N., the ICC, or any other international organization has the moral standing to criticize Israel, or the United States, is absurd.

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