Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 22.04.2024
In February, US President Joe Biden on Monday warned Israel against invading the southern Gaza city of Rafah, insisting that the U.S. would not support any operation that fails to account for the safety of the Palestinians who fled there under Israeli orders. However, this was a public relations trick, as he gave Netanyahu’s government the green light to attack Raffa. The decision of the US House came after Palestinian civil defense crews retrieved 180 bodies from a mass grave inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza’s Khan Younis.
The Zionist apartheid state had bombed the “safe zone” of Rafah just one day after the US House voted to give $14bn to Israel in unconditional military funding to be used in a campaign of death and destruction. Twenty-two people were killed in Rafah on Sunday night, including 18 children.
By its law, the International Criminal Court is obliged to take immediate action on Gaza, given the wealth of evidence supporting the accusations of genocide against Israel. The International Court of Justice clearly stated that there is a plausible case for genocide. However, the ICC has a history of using its power only against non-imperialist states (except in the case of imperialist Russia), for example, in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, where international criminal tribunals have ruled on the crime of genocide.
“The ICC has identified the existence of a reasonable basis for investigating cases of genocide, including ones with far lesser devastation to civilian lives and infrastructure than currently observed in Gaza. For instance, in the case of the genocide in Darfur, in a July 2010 decision, the court identified that the threshold to issue an arrest warrant against Sudan’s then-President Omar al-Bashir for the crime of genocide was that “there are reasonable grounds to believe” that the intent exists. This decision was a revision of the court’s initial decision of March 2009, in which the threshold for inferring the intent was “the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn.” In its revised decision, the court stated that this threshold only applies later in the trial stage, not at the stage of issuing arrest warrants“.[i]
“The ICC, under Prosecutor Karim Khan, dispatched a 42-member investigative team to Ukraine within three months of the full-scale Russian invasion. They collected enough evidence to allow the court to issue four arrest warrants.”[ii]
In November 2023, six states led by South Africa referred the situation in Palestine to the court and urged it to act. The same month, three Palestinian rights groups submitted a communication to the ICC, asking it to investigate the crimes of apartheid and genocide in Gaza.
“In December, Khan visited Israel and made a short trip to Ramallah, where he briefly met with victims of Israeli crimes. He then issued a general statement about investigating “allegations of crimes” that did not in any way refer to the mounting evidence of genocide being perpetrated in Gaza.”[iii]
Since then, we have not heard from the ICC, which exposes its nature as an instrument of Western imperialism. However, under very massive pressure, the ICC may be forced to issue an indictment against Israel for genocide.
For humanity to live, imperialism must die!
In Hawai’i in 1779, the imperialist known as James Cook was put to death. Across Moana, numerous communities celebrate this day, known in Hawai’i as Hauʻoli Lā Hoʻomake iā Kapena Kuke (Happy Death of Captain Cook Day). Of course, much to the disdain of colonial descendants, who consider these celebrations macabre and, according to them, distasteful.
Down with the Zionist apartheid state!
Endnotes:
[i] Law for Palestine in https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/4/21/the-icc-can-no-longer-ignore-the-genocide-in-gaza
[ii] Ibid
[iii] Ibid