Editorials: Gaza: Welcome initiative by ICC

Editorials: Gaza: Welcome initiative by ICC 3 February 2009

THE International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is wisely reconsidering its decision last month that it was unable to mount a war crimes prosecution over Israeli savagery in Gaza because it did not have jurisdiction. Israel along with the United States (as well as China, Russia and India) does not recognize the ICC. Therefore it was initially argued that procedurally a case could not be brought against named Israeli soldiers and politicians. Yesterday the ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo revealed that he was investigating the possibility that because the "alleged" war crimes were committed on Palestinian territory and the Palestinian Authority had requested a prosecution, it was after all possible to bring a case. The UN is separately investigating the shelling of its Gaza schools. This change of heart may have come about because of a belated recognition of international outrage at the shelling of the Gaza ghetto, causing thousands of deaths and injuries among a totally trapped civilian population. There is also clear evidence that the Israelis used phosphorus munitions in dense built-up areas, which is an offense under the Geneva Conventions. The ICC is still a fledgling international court. If it embarks on a prosecution of Israeli war criminals, it can expect to be heading on a collision course, almost certainly with Washington and very probably with a number of European capitals, whose governments busily condemned the barbarous onslaught but, as with the 2007 Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, did precious little to try and stop it. The reason why the ICC must bring a case against Israel is that it is time the court was seen to be prepared to prosecute any one from any country, without fear or favor. So far the ICC has acted over allegations involving developing countries such as Chad and Senegal, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. It has not challenged a modern state like Israel. Most certainly it should. It cannot afford to have the watching world believe that there is one law for poor, unsophisticated countries and another for advanced states enjoying US backing and protection. A war crime is just as heinous when committed by a modern, well-equipped and allegedly disciplined army as it is by fanatics with machetes in the African jungle. Israel's wrongdoing is compounded in that the butchery of helpless Palestinians was clearly an obnoxious political ploy to try and save the Kadima-led Israeli coalition from defeat at the next week's general election. If the ICC does accept the Palestinian complaint and the Israelis refuse to cooperate, as has the Sudanese government over war crimes allegations in Darfur, it does not mean that the case falls. With Sudan the matter was referred to the UN Security Council, who though stopping short of accusing Sudan of genocide, as Washington had wished, condemned the government of President Omar Bashir. To the African Union's concern, the ICC is now considering if the first international arrest warrant should be issued for a sitting head of state. The court should be no less robust in its early investigation of Israel's abhorrent behavior in Gaza. War crimes do not cease to be war crimes just because they were committed by the victims of the Holocaust or their descendants. Bad news from neighborhood THE news that Israel has invested close to NIS 200 million in Mevasseret Adumim, a new Jewish neighborhood east of Jerusalem where 3,500 housing units are slated to be built, reveals the real intentions of the outgoing government, said the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in an editorial yesterday. Excerpts: For the past two years, Israel has invested massive amounts of money on infrastructure for the construction of housing units to create a contiguous bloc between Ma'aleh Adumim and East Jerusalem. Over the past decade, the US government has objected to any Israeli construction in the area. But even more worrying than the harming of US interests or the pouring of public funds into a project whose future is uncertain are the serious contradictions between the government's declared policies and its actions. Most disturbingly, the construction reveals that the government sought to entrench the Israeli occupation of the West Bank at the same time that it spoke about reaching a settlement with the Palestinians. The only purpose of Mevasseret Adumim is to break up the West Bank, ruin ties between Jerusalem and Ramallah, and wreck the last chance of reaching a peaceful settlement. One cannot talk about a two-state solution while doing everything to thwart any chance that it will come to be. One cannot talk about ending the occupation while keeping on building settlements in the West Bank. Actions, after all, speak louder than words. The chances of creating a Palestinian state amid the Jewish settlements in the West Bank are dim even without the added complication of Mevasseret Adumim. Such government hypocrisy and contradictions between stated policies and actions need to be halted before the new US administration gets involved. If you want peace, you don't invest in the construction of Mevasseret Adumim.

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