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The Israeli Prime Minister, accused by the International Criminal Court of war crimes and crimes against humanity, spoke of a “modern Dreyfus trial”. For the historian Vincent Duclert, a specialist in this affair, it is an error which reveals a problematic conception of justice and historical truth.
The ICC's decision indicting Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, and calling for their arrest for trial, would paradoxically be good news for Israelis. Several reasons attest to this. While the Hebrew State is denounced by multiple militant voices as carrying out genocide against the Palestinians through its military actions in Gaza and the West Bank, the ICC dismisses this incrimination in favor of those of “war crime” and of “crime against humanity”. Many observers agree that they are well-founded.
The warrant issued simultaneously against a Hamas leader attests to the ICC's recognition of the crime against humanity perpetrated by the October 7 attack. Faced with a government and its leader, Benyamin Netanyahu, who believe they are accountable to no one, are authorized to take any violent action and benefit from total impunity, the liberal Israeli opposition finds significant support there: democracy cannot free itself from checks and balances, from law and proportionality, as well as from the conformity of responses to an attack of a terrorist nature. Furthermore, Israeli courts are entitled to take up the ICC proceedings, in accordance with its statutes. Justice is back!
Let us also remember that the indictment by the ICC is not a guilty verdict, but opens with the holding of a contradictory trial where the facts, the evidence,
