No Justice Under Normalization: The Trouble with the ICC Warrants
By Tim Biondo and Nour Jaghama
“When an international court equates a colonizer and the colonized, it speaks to a deep misunderstanding of the entire issue.” Nour Jaghama
Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court Prosecutor, has applied for warrants of arrest for three Hamas leaders (Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, and Ismail Haniyeh) and two Israelis (Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant). Khan is bringing 8 charges against the Palestinians and 7 against the Israelis.
While Netanyahu, Gallant, and many other Israeli leaders should rightfully be arrested, the ICC’s equation of the colonizers with the colonized only serves to normalize Israel’s occupation.
Normalization is one of the greatest obstacles in the struggle for Palestinian liberation. By legitimizing the occupation, a “two sides” narrative prevails, and the struggle for freedom is bent into an imperial framework that cannot yield true decolonization. Land theft is criminal. Occupation is criminal. Ethnic cleansing is criminal. The longstanding siege on Gaza is criminal. To ignore these truths only serves to prolong the occupation.
A close look at the language in the ICC arrest announcement reveals this normalization. For instance, in the application for warrants, the ICC mentions gratitude to Israeli families, Israel’s right to defend itself, the need for accountability for 10/7, and calls for the release of Israeli hostages. However, it fails to mention the genocide of Palestinians, the 76 years of Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing, Palestinians’ right to resist occupation, the collaboration and support of the U.S., Germany, and other nations, and the nearly 10,000 Palestinians held hostage in Israel.
To accuse one side of taking hostages without mentioning the other’s long history of hostage-taking is a tool used by Israel, US elected officials, and Western media in an attempt to normalize Israel’s genocidal campaign. The ICC has not accused Israeli leaders of taking hostages but has charged Hamas leaders. However, Israel is currently holding nearly 10,000 Palestinians hostage in so-called “administrative detention.” Israel has not charged these people with any crimes and refuses to indicate when they will be released despite this practice being illegal under international law.
The ICC fails to hold Israel accountable despite the masses of evidence of Israel’s abduction of Palestinians in Gaza. In the West Bank, Israel has kidnapped more than 7,000 Palestinians since October. That is more than 50 times the number of hostages currently held in Gaza.
While failing to charge Israeli leaders with the illegal detention of Palestinian hostages, the ICC also fails to charge them with the rampant use of torture against these hostages.
Such documented examples include when Israel tortured to death Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, head of Orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. Or the illegal imprisonment of Farouk Al-Khatib for four months. He died shortly after his release because of deliberate medical negligence by his Israeli captors.
There is an enormous amount of evidence of Israel’s arbitrary kidnapping and torture of Palestinian hostages. The ICC’s failure to name these war crimes and indict all of those in the Israel government who are responsible whitewashes the situation, ignoring the conditions that led to the attack on Oct 7. That failure has been systematic.
Ten years ago, in 2014, Israel killed over 2,000 Palestinians, including 500 children, in its aggression on Gaza. After the State of Palestine lodged a complaint with the ICC regarding Israel’s aggression, the court took six years to rule that it had jurisdiction over the crimes. The court indicated they would investigate both Hamas and Israel, and while Hamas accepted jurisdiction, Israel did not. Netanyahu called the case “pure antisemitism.”
Ten years later, the ICC has only just now begun to hold Israeli leaders accountable for some of its many crimes, and only those committed since October 7th.
This normalizing decision comes after years of pressure on the court from powerful actors to favor Israeli and American interests, even though neither state has ratified the Rome Statute. The United States has had an active role in keeping charges against Israel from being filed.
In 2018, Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton, announced a change in stance towards the ICC, rejecting potential investigations into Israel for war crimes in Palestinian territories and into the U.S. for war crimes in Afghanistan. In 2019, they revoked Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s visa and, in 2020, issued sanctions on her and the ICC’s staff. In 2021, she was replaced by British lawyer Karim Khan. According to the Times of Israel, Khan was Israel’s preferred candidate.
For Israeli leaders to be charged by their best-case-scenario prosecutor is a testament to the incontestable criminality of Israel’s actions. Still, Khan’s decision to ignore the reality of Israel’s genocide and 76 year-long occupation only normalizes their criminal response. When a colonizer and the colonized are being equated in an international court, it speaks to a profound misunderstanding of the entire issue.
Over 40,000 Gazans have been murdered in collective punishment. Palestine has experienced suffering through over 76 years of occupation and colonization. In the past seven months and long before, Gaza has received every punishment possible on earth. How much more punishment does the ICC think Palestinians deserve? It is the lack of justice that has led us to this point. Until there is justice and freedom for the Palestinian people, the region and the entire world will never know peace.
While we celebrate the long overdue shift towards holding Israel’s leaders accountable, we know that as long as they continue to normalize Israel’s occupation, international bodies like the ICC will not deliver justice for Palestinians — only the people can do that. As we see the world finally wakes up to Israel’s crimes, we must rise up more than ever before until Palestine sees peace and liberation.
Tim Biondo is is the digital communications manager for CODEPINK. They hold a bachelor’s degree in Peace Studies from The George Washington University.
Nour Jaghama is CODEPINK’s Palestine and Iran Campaigner. Nour graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor’s degree in International Studies in June 2022. She has been advocating for Palestinian liberation for over 5 years, including organizing within her university. She also organizes around related issues, such as abolition.
There is no reason for ICC's equation of 'two sides.