Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) welcomed the long-awaited decision of the International Criminal Court to ratify the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Galant.
This decision, which was issued unanimously by the judges of the Pre-trail Chamber1 , is a first step towards eliminating impunity that politicians and military leaders in the occupying state have enjoyed for decades due to the unlimited support of the United States of America and other countries.
The decision rebutted the narrative of leaders, politicians and media around the world who always defended Israel and provided it with full support on the grounds of exercising its right to self-defence. Today, most of them have announced their compliance with the court’s decision, except for the United States of America, which is not a member of the International Criminal Court, considering it a shameful decision.
The Office of the Prosecutor is free now to deal more quickly with the ongoing crimes committed by the occupation in the Gaza Strip, as the list of leaders, officers and soldiers participating in the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip is long.
There are also many files before the Prosecutor that must be dealt with since Palestine was subjected to the court’s jurisdiction in June 2014. The list of politicians and military leaders who committed crimes that fall within the court’s jurisdiction is endless and must be prosecuted quickly, similar to other cases that the prosecutor’s office has dealt with.
The most important and clear file is the file of the ongoing settlements throughout the occupied territories, which has begun to threaten the Palestinian existence after Smotrich announced that he is preparing to impose Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.
The slow procedures and hesitation in dealing with the files presented to the Office of the Prosecutor since June 2014 have encouraged Israeli leaders to commit the most serious crimes, as they felt immune to any prosecution. Following the issuance of the two warrants, this should hopefully be the threshold of a new era in which the issuance of more arrest warrants will be accelerated to maximize efforts aimed at deterring the occupation leaders and stopping their crimes, most notably the ongoing crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
AOHR UK called on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to request the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) under Article 4 of the agreement signed with the Office of the Prosecutor in 2004 to circulate red notices with the names of wanted persons, which would require 195 countries that are members of Interpol to arrest the wanted persons if they arrive in their countries. This is an important step to ensure that the enforcement of these notices is not limited to the 124 states that are members of the Court.
AOHR UK also called on all countries that have provided support to the occupation, including members of the International Criminal Court, for more than a year of genocide in the Gaza Strip to stop this support in all its forms and devote their efforts to stopping the war of genocide through practical and decisive measures.
AOHR UK stressed the need to provide financial support to the court to be able to assign human cadres to deal with the accumulated files. It is also necessary to support the court employees and provide them with protection in light of the unprecedented threats they have been exposed to and to stand in the face of American bullying which aims to undermine the work of the court and use it as a tool to serve its political agendas.
