{"id":5243,"date":"2020-02-17T18:12:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T18:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/?p=5243"},"modified":"2020-02-23T18:22:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-23T18:22:06","slug":"merkels-defense-of-israels-war-crimes-undermines-icc-rule-of-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/?p=5243","title":{"rendered":"Merkel\u2019s Defense of Israel\u2019s War Crimes Undermines ICC & Rule of Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

February 17, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"German
German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Photo: File)<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By<\/strong>Iqbal Jassat<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly following her visit to South Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s government made a shocking announcement in defense of Israel\u2019s horrendous record of serious human rights violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Germany took the shameful form of undermining International Law by contesting the Hague\u2019s jurisdiction, claiming that the International Criminal Court (ICC) lacks the authority to investigate Israel\u2019s war crimes against Palestinians.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a petition filed with the ICC, Merkel\u2019s government requested to be \u201ca friend of the court\u201d (amicus curiae) in an attempt to prevent the Hague proceeding with charges against the Netanyahu regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After long periods of procrastination, ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda finally announced in December that there is a reasonable basis to probe Israel\u2019s actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She, however, left a gaping hole that is being exploited by Israel and allies such as Germany. Bensouda requested The Hague to decide over the question of jurisdiction, which has the potential to sidetrack and undermine any possibility of prosecuting and punishing the settler-colonial regime\u2019s war criminals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0This despite the Prosecutor\u2019s Office insisting that Israel has demolished Palestinian properties, forcefully evicted Palestinians from the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Bensouda also included in her indictment war crimes committed in Occupied Gaza during 2014\u2019s Operation Protective Edge. In addition Israel\u2019s operation to evacuate Palestinian residents of the Bedouin village Khan al-Ahmar and construction of settlements in the West Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Merkel\u2019s injudicious decision to side with Israel gives credence to Netanyahu\u2019s attack on the ICC. In a recent interview on a Christian television network, Israel\u2019s leader who has been indicted for fraud and corruption charges, falsely claimed that the ICC is in a \u201cfull-frontal attack\u201d on Jews and brazenly called for sanctions on The Hague.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany\u2019s argument in its petition sounds like a \u201ccopy and paste\u201d of Israel\u2019s which claims that the ICC\u2019s jurisdiction does not extend to Occupied Palestinian Territories as Palestine is not a state. Strangely, this ignores the fact that Palestine is a signatory to the ICC\u2019s Rome Statute.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only is it disingenuous of Germany to disregard Palestine\u2019s rights, by attempts to mislead the ICC the Merkel government legitimizes Israel\u2019s seven decades of dehumanization of Palestinians.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Merkel\u2019s \u201ctoenadering\u201d with Netanyahu may be seen by some as a boon to him at a time he faces the prospect of jail time, for Palestinians it clearly says that Germany has betrayed their legitimate and just cause for justice. How else are the aggrieved families of martyrs to interpret Merkel\u2019s colossal unjust petition which claims that the ICC has no authority to even discuss whether Israel committed war crimes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Germany is one of the main member states of The Hague Tribunal, it has an unfair advantage to influence an outcome that will prejudice Palestinian demands for justice. Merkel\u2019s blatant decision to side with Netanyahu is thus an abuse of power due to its privileged position in the hearings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest reports indicate that in addition to Germany, Israel is intensely involved in recruiting many countries to argue on its behalf as \u201cunofficial proxies\u201d, as itself has opted not to participate in order to \u201cavoid conveying legitimacy\u201d to the ICC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hungary and the Czech Republic along with Austria, Australia and Canada have all come on board to support Israel\u2019s impunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although prosecutor Bensouda believes that Palestine is \u201cenough of a state\u201d for the purposes of transferring criminal jurisdiction over its territory to The Hague, her request to have this view tested may derail the investigation given the legal battle over the definition of what constitutes a \u201cstate\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attack on the ICC with calls by Netanyahu to sanction it comes on the heel of the release by the UN of a list of 112 companies with ties to Israel\u2019s illegal settlements. And in the same unethical vein, the apartheid regime has attacked the UN Commissioner as a partner and tool of the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siding with Israel to whitewash horrendous crimes against Palestinians may allow Merkel to escape Israel\u2019s wrath, but doing so places Germany on the wrong side of history \u2013 yet again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it appears to be incongruous for Germany and a handful of countries to prevent the exercise of justice by The Hague \u2013 which is what it was set up to do \u2013 it is true that as far as Palestinians are concerned, siding with Israel allows the rogue regime to continue committing war crimes and violations of international humanitarian laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0And doing so with the full knowledge that the backing it enjoys from the Trump administration and the soft landing provided by Germany, immunizes it from accountability, neutralizes prosecutorial processes and denies justice for Palestine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Some commentators have rightly argued that this preposterous defense of Israel\u2019s widespread criminal conduct may result in a death blow for the ICC. The fear expressed is that the action by Chancellor Merkel is shortsighted for by creating a legal black hole in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that may result in destroying a badly weakened ICC.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel hopes that by twisting the facts and shifting the ICC\u2019s goalposts, it will emerge unscathed. Its hopes are pinned on Chancellor Merkel as the leading European leader to divert The Hague from its task by engaging it on frivolous legal semantics such as \u201cjurisdiction\u201d and disputing Palestine\u2019s ratification of the Rome Statute.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While international jurists will be Occupied (pun intended) in debating legal concepts, it behooves countries such as South Africa to raise their voices against futile legal red herrings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Silence in the face of this manufactured legal impediment will be construed as a failure to uphold and defend Palestinian human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u2013 Iqbal Jassat is an Executive Member of the South Africa-based Media Review Network. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit:www.mediareviewnet.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 17, 2020 German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Photo: File) ByIqbal Jassat Shortly following her visit to South Africa, German Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s government made a shocking announcement in defense of Israel\u2019s horrendous record of serious human rights violations. \u00a0Germany took the shameful form of undermining International Law by contesting …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5245,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5243\/revisions\/5245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jahalin.org\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}