In contrast to the International Court of Justice, which has been hearing the suit filed by South Africa against Israel, the ICC handles cases against individuals. Like the United States, India, China, Russia, Iran and most Arab countries, Israel recognizes the authority of the International Court of Justice but not the ICC.

If warrants are served, each ICC member state – there are 123 – is obligated to arrest and hand over the defendants to The Hague if they enter its territory. While there is no way to appeal an international arrest warrant, any country can theoretically tell the court that it is handling the case itself.

According to former Deputy Attorney General Roy Schondorf, the issuing of arrest warrants could lead to moves against Israel like an arms embargo or economic sanctions.

"These warrants would group Israel with countries that are considered transgressors against international law, and would come on top of all the other cases against Israel," Schondorf said.

Arrest warrants have never been issued against Israeli officials. But in March 2023, the ICC issued a warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of an investigation into possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine and his alleged involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children to Russia. As a result, Putin can't visit countries where he thinks he might be arrested.

Also, in February, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum urged the ICC to prosecute Hamas leaders.

Some experts in international law say the attorney general and army lawyers are partly to blame for not doing enough to prevent Israeli violations of international law. But the Justice Ministry says the government and the security forces have received sufficient counsel. A key question is whether civilians have been harmed intentionally.

Prof. Eliav Lieblich of Tel Aviv University says that belligerent statements by Israeli politicians have not helped the Israeli cause.

For example, Israel Katz, now the foreign minister, demanded that the Gaza Strip's water supply be cut off because "that's what murderers of children deserve." And Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli said the dropping of a nuclear bomb on Gaza was "an option" because Israel "must find ways to cause suffering in Gaza."

Lieblich says that such statements support arguments "that Israel intentionally harms, starves and expels civilians from Gaza, and is even trying to annihilate the Palestinians as a group." He notes that such statements played a key role in the lawsuit at the International Court of Justice.

Lieblich also notes the sense that the high command does not fully control the forces on the ground. "Almost every day, videos are surfacing online where soldiers are documenting improper conduct. This leads to distrust in officials' statements about the IDF acting in accordance with the laws of combat," he said.

Doreen Lustig, an assistant professor at Tel Aviv University, notes that the shooting at aid convoys, the destruction of hospital and university buildings, and especially the killing of World Central Kitchen aid workers have worked against Israel.

The experts say that thorough and independent investigations by the Israeli legal system should keep a lid on problems in the international arena, including possible arrest warrants.

In January, on the eve of the hearings at the International Court of Justice, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said she would address the cases where Israeli officials called for harm to Palestinian civilians.

A month later, Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi said that Israeli soldiers had committed criminal acts whose damage in the international arena was "hard to overestimate."

Already that month, the IDF had begun investigating dozens of suspected violations of orders and international law. Also, the High Court of Justice is hearing a petition filed by rights groups demanding that Israel allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Still, Lieblich believes that the efforts should have been greater after the comments by wayward ministers, and in cases of suspected mistreatment of Hamas members in custody.

Last week, the authorities said they were allowing U.K.-appointed observers to visit Palestinian prisoners, including members of Hamas' elite Nukhba force. This decision is linked to fears that arrest warrants will be served against Israeli officials.

Human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, a legal adviser to rights group Yesh Din, says the massive civilian death toll and destruction in Gaza raise suspicions that approval was carelessly awarded. Also, military prosecutors might lack the courage to investigate the IDF's open-fire policy, he adds.

"The army lawyers and the legal adviser to the government ... will have to provide a lot of explanations," Sfard said.

He says Baharav-Miara's refusal to investigate dozens of cases of suspected incitement to genocide, even after the issuance of interim orders at The Hague, forces the ICC to launch an investigation.

"The attorney general blatantly grants immunity to the troublemakers. It doesn't matter if this is due to negligence or fear of the people potentially being investigated, who are lawmakers, ministers and journalists," Sfard said. He added that Tomer-Yerushalmi, the military advocate general, was supposed to order an immediate investigation into the killing of the seven World Central Kitchen aid workers.

Schondorf, the former deputy attorney general, believes that the effectiveness of the legal advice depends on the cooperation of the political and military authorities.

"In this war, there is a fear that there is also an ideological element, stemming in part from the violation of the authority of the senior command by right-wing politicians," he said.

For its part, the Justice Ministry said that "the law enforcement system in Israel is committed to examining allegations of violations of the law. Decisions on investigations and prosecutions are made based on professional considerations, while exercising independent and impartial judgment."
___

>defend yourself
>get called a war criminal
Why is the world so antisemitic bros?

>>1290948
The rest of the world is literally Nazis

Finally some good news on this shit-forsaken board

>>1290942
I'm sure the arrest warrants for Hamas are coming down any day, right guys?

>>1290951
>Also, in February, the Hostage and Missing Families Forum urged the ICC to prosecute Hamas leaders.

>like... drag it out longer...

why don't cha...

>>1290949
Biden is knee yet yahoo's Himmler.

>The ICC
>A real entity with real authority that matters and is taken seriously
Lmao, I'm not defending Israel but people who think the ICC will do anything other than wag its finger are always amusing to watch

>>1291001
What made you like this?

>>1291001
The ICC has power. The power it wields is simply limited in scope. You can only be arrested by the ICC in countries that are signed on to it and people that cross them generally don't do a lot of international travel to said countries.

Fucking Israeli leadership does. Not saying they'd actually get arrested, but the warrant is would just be a permanent ban to a fat chunk of the world for them. It'd also fuck with diplomatic ties for them to those countries. Newsflash, Israel has close ties to countries like Germany and the UK.

And get out the popcorn if Israeli leadership acts untouchable and actually pushes their luck by going to a country they're wanted in.

Good, issue war crime charges against Netanyahu .As well as Ali Khamenei, Ismail Haniyeh Putin, Zelensky, Biden, Trump ....etc. Because they all have abused their authorities and committed massive civilian murders.

All leaders are evil and useless parasites, truly scums of the world. Those top positions needs to be eliminated permanently.

As history as repeatedly prvoen: It is inevitable for those at the top to mututally destroy each other. Be it hoarders in wealth, or power authority.

>>1290948
There are a lot of muslim countries, more than 40. Non of them has a real democracy. If the UN decides important stuff by votes, they will always vote against non muslim faiths. The UN is not a good thing if it gives such a big platform to dictatorships. it should be only for democratic countries.

>>1291029
>believe the UN/ICC are effective at doing anything
Why are you like this?

>>1291333
Because they are effective at doing things?

>>1290948
>defend yourself from Israel
>get called a terrorist

>>1291310
Don't pretend Israel is democratic you retard

>>1291383
You're being hyperbolic

>>1290942
So if the ICC issues arrest warrants to Israeli leadership, and all other democracies in the world apply sanctions and blockades to Israel, what's stopping Israel from just doing a genocide? Cause 30,000 is nothing. That's like 0.01% of the population of the Gaza strip.

If the west abandons Israel, what's stopping them from then allying with Russia and China? China loves killing Uyghur muslims. Russia loves sending chechen muslims to their death in Ukraine. Israel would fit right into the new Axis.

>>1290942
nee yet ya-hoo has less of a chance of seeing jail time than tRump

>>1291388
>That's like 0.01% of the population of the Gaza strip.
It's more than 1.5% of the population of the Gaza strip and most of the rest are homeless and facing disease and starvation.

>>1291388
> if we punish crimes
> then what’s stopping more crimes?

Your logic doesn’t logic.

>>1291334
Like what- protecting pedophiles by giving them diplomatic immunity from prosecution?

>>1291408
Don't forget the 70,000 seriously wounded. That's 3.5% of the total population. Combined total of 5%.

Also 80% have been made homeless.

>>1291420
making you seethe over imaginary conspiracy theories about the UN/ICC which originated on facebook with the other boomers your age

>>1291438
>Also 80% have been made homeless.
Future democrat municipality

>>1291481
Go outside

>>1291495
I do everyday on my way to work and the gym and I see no shortage of hobos passed out from fentanyl in this major West Coast metropolitan paradise I live in

>>1291133
You're not wrong or anything, but Israeli leaders being arrested would require the governments of any of those countries actually going through with arresting them which I highly doubt is going to happen (particularly in Germany lmao). The amount of blowback they'd receive from wealthy people (i.e. the true constituents of western liberal democracies and the only group within those countries with any semblance of representation) would not be worth the amount of good will they'd generate from the general population.
Unfortunately for liberal internationalists who believe in the ideal of international law (no, I'm not talking about TIJ, I mean neoliberals) Israel's acting with impunity is, imo, likely to be the death knell of the idea that international law is anything other than a facade for Lex Americana. Israel is doing the same kinda shit that got Gadaffi killed, but you will never see them face anything other than at worst a censuring. "International law" never existed and always required a hegemon (namely the US) to actually enforce it which essentially guarantees that as long as you're important to the right people, you can act with utter impunity. If international law is not applied equally (and it never really was) then it isn't "international law." It's "the law that everyone who is my geopolitical adversary must follow at the threat of death, but one which my friends and I can break without consequence." Like Osama, Mearsheimer and others have hinted at in the past: American support for Israel could be the biggest threat to the legitimacy of the American Empire's current international order (although I'd argue that it began more with Iraq/Afghanistan and is current being exacerbated by this among other things).

>>1291496
Nice try but we all know you live in Vladivostok

>>1291419
Nobody in Israel is going to go to jail. They are not a signatory of the ICC. And if they're cut off from the west, what's stopping them from turning 30,000 dead bodies into 2 million? What's the incentive?

>>1291595
Anytime Netanyahu travels to a country which is a signatory to the ICC he risks criminal arrest. It's the same thing that happened to Henry Kissenger for decades before he died.

>>1291598
Yes, but who cares? Maybe he'd just say "fuck it, no more vacations to France." and then bury 2 million Muslims in rubble.

All I'm sayin' is, if you be nuttin' Yahoo dem be some ting wong.

>>1291613
Maybe he will just say "fuck it" and drink poison on the stand like that one Serbian guy who also faced an ICC warrant for war crimes

>>1291626
Its not gonna happen. He'll never be arrested.

>>1291636
That's what Slobodan Milosevic said, too, but then...

>>1291653
He turned himself in dumbass

>>1291668
Ah wait, I'm the fool. In was think of Prajlak>>1291653