The International Criminal Court became the latest meaningless bureaucratic organization masquerading as an objective international voice of reason to accuse Israel of war crimes.
On Monday, prosecutor Karim Khan announced that the ICC is seeking arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three high-profile Hamas members, including the terrorist group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar.
The charges leveled against the Hamas leaders read like a summary of the Palestinian terrorist group’s charter: extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape and sexual violence, and torture.
The charges leveled against Netanyahu and Gallant include starvation of civilians, willful killing and suffering, and the intentional targeting of attacks against civilians.
First, it’s important to understand that this is all paper-pushing theater. While the ICC does have the power to prosecute certain charges, it relies completely on the national police infrastructure of member states to make arrests. Given that neither Israel nor the United States ratified the statute on which the ICC’s power is built, the chances of Netanyahu or Gallant being dragged before this kangaroo court are slim.
But that’s not really the point. The point is that the ICC is another international organization, like the United Nations, that has become part of the campaign against logic, reason, and the existence of the Jewish state of Israel.
Make no mistake: the charges leveled against Israeli leaders are obscene. This goes far beyond the naivety required to believe that any war can be carried out without tragic harm to civilian populations and strays into deliberate ignorance. Not only does Israel do more than any other military force in history to protect civilians — intentionally placed in harm’s way by Hamas — but Israel managed to invade Gaza while maintaining one of the lowest combatant-to-civilian death ratios in the history of warfare.
And yet it is accused of genocide.
And while Hamas terrorists, who are openly motivated by genocide, are charged with the very crimes they boastfully livestreamed to the world on Oct. 7, they are only charged alongside Israel — a comparison of disgusting proportions.
In simple terms, the ICC is using the both-sides “All Lives Matter” logic that was condemned as unquestionably racist during the Black Lives Matter movement (and subsequent riots) to equate the immorality of Islamic terrorism with the Jewish state’s defensive (and entirely justified) response in the face of repeated attempted annihilation.
Laughably, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that seeking arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders “equates the victim with the executioner.”
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Flip the variables and he’s correct: seeking arrest warrants for the leaders of a democratic entity, Israel, for daring to defend its citizens from the bloodthirsty, genocidal clutches of Hamas “equates the victim with the executioner.”
Israel is attempting to destroy a terrorist organization hellbent on the eradication of Israel’s (and the world’s) Jews while providing aid, warning, and escape routes to Palestinian civilians resulting in some of the lowest civilian casualty rates in the context of urban warfare. If Israel is unable to defend itself by such means without being accused of committing war crimes, what is the alternative?
Ian Haworth is a columnist, speaker, and podcast host. You can find him on Substack and follow him on X at @ighaworth.