US pressure could derail ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders | Israeli-Palestinian conflict News

When Israel began relentlessly bombing Gaza, Rasha Abu Shaban packed a handful of belongings and fled south with her parents and siblings.

His brother stayed, fearing he would never be able to come home again.

Abu Shaban was in a displaced persons camp in Rafah when she learned that an Israeli missile had hit her house.

My brother was killed in early November. He was there with another displaced family in our house, Abu Shaban, 38, told Al Jazeera. We heard from [our neighbours] that an ambulance could not reach them.

Abu Shaban is one of tens of thousands of Palestinians hungry for justice after losing loved ones, property and livelihoods to Israel's devastating war on Gaza, which began after a Hamas-led attack on Palestinians. communities and Israeli military outposts on October 7.

Approximately 1,139 Israelis were killed in this attack and 250 were taken prisoner. Since then, Israel has killed more than 35,500 Palestinians in a campaign of violence that U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese and other legal experts have called genocide.

On May 20, after months of gathering evidence, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Minister of Justice. Defense Yoav Gallant as well as against Hamas leader Yahya. Sinwar; the head of the movement's political office, Ismail Haniyeh; and the head of its military branch, Mohammed Deif.

Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of using starvation of civilians as a method of war and extermination, deliberately causing great suffering, and deliberately directing attacks against civilians.

Hamas leaders are accused of extermination, hostage-taking and torture.

Khan's announcement marks the first time an ICC chief prosecutor has sought to prosecute senior officials from a close U.S. ally, marking a significant moment in the body's history.

Although Khan's announcement gives Abu Shaban hope that the Palestinians will one day get justice, she fears that Israel and the United States will pressure ICC judges to reject Khan's demands.

I have mixed feelings, she said. I really fear that the United States and Israel will stop the arrests. [warrants] to occur.

American threats

Weeks before Khan's announcement, senior Republican lawmakers in the United States submitted a letter to his office that threatened to exclude him and his family from the country if he sought arrest warrants for the leaders Israelis.

In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Khan said a senior US official even told him that the ICC was built for Africa and for thugs like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, but not Western or Western-backed leaders.

We don't see it like that, Khan said. This tribunal is the legacy of Nuremberg, and this tribunal is a sad indictment of humanity, and this tribunal should be the triumph of law over power and brute force.

US President Joe Biden criticized Khan's decision, calling the call for indictments against Israeli leaders outrageous.

Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and several U.S. lawmakers said Khan had drawn a false moral equivalence between Hamas terrorists and Israel's democratically elected leaders.

Netanyahu, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have all made similar statements.

But Adil Haque, a legal scholar at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said those arguments carry no legal weight.

Israel's allies are using rhetoric to undermine Khan's equal application of international law, he explained.

Basically, the prosecutor is saying that Israeli government officials violated international law and Hamas leaders violated international law and those violations are serious, Haque told Al Jazeera.

People can discuss whether the charges against Hamas leaders are better or worse [than the ones brought against Israeli leaders]but that’s not the prosecutors’ concern.

Pressure and reprisals?

Three judges in the ICC's pre-trial chamber are currently deliberating whether to issue the arrest warrants.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch urged all ICC members to protect the independence of the courts from hostile pressure that is likely to intensify as ICC judges consider Khan's request.

The United States, which is not a member of the Rome Statute, the treaty that underpins the ICC, is reportedly considering sanctions against court officials.

Three years ago, the Biden administration lifted sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump on former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and other officials.

Trump was furious that Bensouda opened investigations into Israeli abuses in the occupied Palestinian territory and into abuses by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Mark Kersten, a legal scholar at the University of the Fraser Valley in Vancouver, said the United States could also try to exert direct pressure on Palestinian officials.

I think [a possible goal of the US] would be to get the AP [Palestinian Authority] stop cooperating with the ICC [by getting it] to stop sending evidence, he said.

Heidi Matthews, a legal scholar at York University in Toronto, added that the United States also has a history of pressuring its Western allies to betray their commitments to the Rome Statute.

From a foreign policy perspective, [Khans decision] This will put the court's longtime supporters, who are also allies of Israel, in a position where they will have to choose between continued support for the project of international criminal law and justice or diplomatic protection of Israel, a- she told Al Jazeera.

I lost my whole life

Local human rights groups hailed Khan's decision as a first step toward justice for Palestinians in Gaza, including those killed well before October 7.

A source from the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from Israel, referred to Israel's killing of 1,462 Palestinian civilians in 51 days during its 2014 war against Gaza.

An independent UN investigation has revealed credible allegations of war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian armed groups during this war.

Four years later, Israeli troops also shot dead unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza who were gathering along the fence with Israel as part of the Great March of Return demonstrations.

We believe this [ICC] arrest warrants can have a deterrent effect, the Al Mezan Center source told Al Jazeera.

Abu Shaban, who is currently in Qatar, added that the discernible shift in global public opinion away from Israel indicates that justice is within reach despite pressure from the United States and Israel.

Moving [by the ICC] asking for arrest warrants itself means that there are more people seeking to hold Israel accountable for the atrocities they commit. If these efforts continue, they will eventually achieve something, she told Al Jazeera.

Furthermore, Abu Shaban said, she deserves justice for her brother and for the distress that Israel's occupation and siege of Gaza has caused so many Palestinians.

I was raised under the Intifadas, the invasions, [communication] power outages and humiliations [Israeli-controlled] level crossings, she said. I lost someone [in my family]and I lost my life.

I have lived my entire life under Israeli occupation.

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