US, Israel must be prosecuted before calling for Russia’s trial, ex-UN special rapporteur says

A former United Nations special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights has slammed the West’s hypocrisy, questioning calls made by the United States and other Western countries for prosecuting Russia while the US and Israel have yet to be held accountable for international crimes.

In an article published on Saturday, Richard Falk said there is no doubt that atrocities have been committed in Ukraine, but stressed that “the world is highly imperfect when it comes to accountability for international crimes.”

He made a reference to the United States’ punishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for authorizing investigations into crimes committed by the US in Afghanistan and the Israeli regime against Palestinians.

The administration of then-President Donald Trump imposed personal sanctions on the ICC prosecutor, “presumably for daring to challenge the US in such a manner even though her behavior was entirely respectful of her professional role and consistent with relevant canons of judicial practice”, Falk said.

The former UN expert further said that the Israeli prime minister also slammed as “pure anti-Semitism” the ICC’s decision to investigate crimes committed by Israel in Palestinian territories, adding that the move was “defiantly rejected by Israeli leaders across the whole political spectrum.”

“Against such a background, there is a typical liberal quandary when faced with clear criminality on one side and pure geopolitical hypocrisy on the other side,” he added.

Falk stressed that the essence of law is treating equals equally, “but world order is not so constituted.”

“As suggested, there is ‘victors’ justice’ imposing accountability on the defeated leadership in major wars but complete non-accountability for the crimes of the geopolitical winners.”

He also noted that the UN Charter gave constitutional status to geopolitical impunity “by granting these victors in World War II an unconditional right of veto, and this, of course, includes Russia.”

Referring to the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, Falk said “When it comes to accountability, double standards are still operative, illustrated by the ironic execution of Saddam Hussein for war crimes in the wake of a war of aggression against Iraq.”

Why Ukraine?

He also raised another question on why the West is calling for the prosecution of Russia for committing alleged crimes in Ukraine, while having been relatively silent on other crimes committed in Yemen, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Palestine.

“Certainly, a part of the explanation is that the Ukrainian victims of abuse are white, European, and Christian, which made it easy for the West to mobilize the mainstream global media, and the related international prominence accorded to Volodymyr Zelensky, the embattled, energetic Ukrainian leader given unprecedented access to the most influential venues on the global stages of world opinion.”

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Falk noted that “the NATO West has gone out of its way to make the Ukrainian War about more than Ukraine.”

He added that the wider war is occurring on two levels: a traditional war between the Russian and Ukrainian forces, “intertwined with an encompassing geopolitical war between the US and Russia.”

Referring to remarks made by US President Joe Biden against Russia, Falk said “it becomes crucial to understand that in the geopolitical war the US is the aggressor.”

“Biden has consistently struck a militarist, demonizing, and confrontational note in the geopolitical war, deliberately antagonizing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin while quite pointedly neglecting diplomacy as the obvious way to stop the killing, and atrocities, in effect, encouraging the war on the ground to be prolonged because its continuation is indispensable in relation to the implicitly higher stakes of grand strategy, which is the core preoccupation of a geopolitical war.”

“When Biden repeatedly calls Putin a war criminal who should face prosecution, and even more so, when he proposes regime change in Russia, he is cheerleading for the Ukrainian War to continue as long as it takes to produce a victory, and not to be content with a ceasefire.”

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” aimed at “demilitarization” of the restive Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine. Putin also said the mission was aimed at “defending people who for eight years are suffering persecution and genocide by the Kiev regime.”

In 2014, the two regions declared themselves new republics, refusing to recognize Ukraine’s Western-backed government.

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