The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced last week it was investigating the Gaza War, or Operation Protective Edge, named by Israel when the war was launched in 2014 after the court determined it maintains jurisdiction over the territories.
Israel called the ruling a political move without legal standing while Palestinians praised the investigation. Axios reported that Tel Aviv plans to urge allies to send a “discreet message” to head prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and try to talk her out of pursuing war crimes charges.
The report said Israel is concerned about international warrants being issued for its military leaders and the investigation could add momentum to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction (BDS) campaign against the country.
Ned Price, a spokesman from the U.S. State Department, said last week it objects to the ICC decision.
“Israel is not a State Party to the Rome Statute. We will continue to uphold President Biden’s strong commitment to Israel and its security, including opposing actions that seek to target Israel unfairly,” Price said, according to Axios.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ICC’s ruling, once again, proves that the body cares little about the law and is simply a political body.
“The court ignores real war crimes and instead persecutes the state of Israel, a state with a firm Democratic regime, which sanctifies the rule of law, and is not a member of the court,” Netanyahu said.
The Times reported that Netanyahu called the ruling “pure anti-Semitism” and pointed to how the ICC refuses to even look into the atrocities committed by Iran and Syria “almost daily.”
The court is reportedly looking into allegations that Israel used a disproportionate use of force in the 2014 war. The Times also reported that the court is looking into Israel’s response to protests back in 2018.
In 2015, a U.N. investigation found that both Israel and Palestinian militants could have committed war crimes during the conflict, the BBC reported. The fight lasted for 50 days and ended in a truce, the report said. But the deal was reached after 2,251 Palestinians were killed, including 1,462 civilians. Israel suffered the deaths of 67 soldiers and six civilians.
Muhammad Shtayyah, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, called the decision to investigate a “message to the perpetrators of crimes, that their crimes will not be subject to a statute of limitations, and that they will not go unpunished.”
TREND FORECAST: As the ICC moves forward, tensions in the Middle East will rise. As Gerald Celente has long noted and history shows, “When all else fails, they take you to war.” As we have been reporting, tensions have been building in the Middle East with Iran being a main target of Israel.
As we have reported since November 2019, Netanyahu has been under the pressure of a criminal indictment on charges of fraud and bribery, and he has twice failed in previous elections to put together a winning coalition.
In March, Israel will hold its fourth national election in less than two years. Since last summer, thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets, primarily in Jerusalem near Netanyahu’s residence, demanding he step down.
Two weeks ago, Israel’s military chief, Lieutenant-General Amir Kohavi, said if President Biden renewed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal that President Trump abandoned, his nation may take offensive measures against Iran. “A return to the 2015 nuclear agreement, or even if it is a similar accord with several improvements, is bad and wrong from an operational and strategic point of view,” the Israeli Defense Force commander said.
He went on to say, “In light of this fundamental analysis, I have instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare a number of operational plans, in addition to those already in place.”
