arrest warrants against impunity

Lhe impunity to which Israel has become accustomed for decades regarding the Palestinian question undoubtedly explains the virulence of the reactions aroused in the Jewish state by the issuance of arrest warrants targeting the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on November 21. Both men are suspected of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The head of Hamas's military wing, Mohammed Deif, considered probably killed in Israeli bombings, is the subject of a similar procedure.

An accusation of such seriousness requires us to return to what it highlights: the war as it was conducted in Gaza after the unprecedented massacres of Israeli civilians, on October 7, 2023, by Hamas militiamen. The judges consider in particular that the two responsible “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population of Gaza of objects essential to their survival », using “starvation” like“a method of combat”and that they are also responsible for“obstruction of humanitarian aid in violation of international humanitarian law ».

Despite the leaden cover imposed for more than a year by Israel, which prohibits the press from free access to the narrow strip of land, anyone concerned with the facts has only been able to accumulate, over the months , the elements which support the judges’ approach. The tens of thousands of civilian victims, the scale of the devastation, whether of habitats or essential infrastructure, and the incessant forced displacements of the population, now well established, constitute all elements incriminating the case.

Absurd accusation of supposed anti-Semitism

They show that the reality of Israel's democratic nature does not in itself protect against breaches of international law. The ICC would not have had to rule if similar complaints had been under investigation in the Jewish state. This is not the case, quite the contrary, given the support given by an Israeli public opinion voluntarily blind to the bombings which continue, day after day, to kill dozens of Palestinian civilians in a staggering international indifference.

It is therefore appropriate to welcome and support the decision of a Court that has remained insensitive to pressure so that an essential function of justice, that of requiring accountability, is preserved. The escalation of denunciations targeting the ICC does little service to its authors, starting with the absurd accusation of supposed anti-Semitism. It truly constitutes an insult to the victims of this abject form of hatred.

By immediately following in the footsteps of the Israeli authorities, the American administration, which had welcomed the arrest warrant from the same body issued against the master of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, further increased its record in the war of Gaza, carried out with American bombs. This alignment in fact comes just two days after the American veto brandished at the United Nations Security Council against a draft resolution demanding both a lasting ceasefire in the narrow strip of land and the release of Israeli hostages who are still detained there. This moral collapse will constitute part of Joe Biden's legacy.