ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant: A watershed moment in intl. justice 

By Iqbal Jassat 

As the world absorbs the impact of global geopolitics following the groundbreaking bombshell dropped by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue warrants of arrest for the settler colonial regime's two notorious war criminals, many issues stand out for me. 

Foremost is a viral post on X, formerly Twitter, by an Israeli writer Alon Mizrahi, known for his biting criticism of the dehumanization of Palestinians by the Israeli regime and settlers.

In it he alluded to the military genius of Hamas's martyr leader Yahya Sinwar and the Al-Aqsa Flood of October 7 that set off  "...the global unmasking, the cultural and diplomatic tremors, the coming into being of an entirely new political movement and energy worldwide, the disintegration of old norms and alliances, the first arrest warrant against a Western ally.”

All this, he noted “was born in the mind of one Gazan man who was born and raised in the Khan Yunis refugee camp after his family was driven out of their ancestral home in Majdal Asqalan...".

Mizrahi's post goes on to remind his audience that Sinwar was “a man who grew up in poverty under occupation, with no future and no dignity but the kind he could muster himself, from within..."

He credits Sinwar for pulling off an operation by channeling all his talent into it, which would change history forever. 

"One Palestinian refugee...he spent years and years in Israeli prisons,” he writes.

"If you don't treat people with dignity, you will get Yehya Sinwar. And all your walls will crumble. Don't occupy and colonize people. It's not worth it. And you will be destroyed." 

The other, equally compelling and incisive, is the observation made by Caitlin Johnstone. 

Johnstone, a journalist, essayist, painter and poet based in Melbourne, Australia, writes that the ICC's decisive action ends decades of impunity and challenges Israel's longstanding shield of immunity. 

She argues that despite the relentless nightmare happening in Gaza, at long last the Western world is getting a clear look at Israel. The real Israel. 

Not the Israel taught about in schools as "the only democracy in the Middle East."

"Not that Israel. The real one. Arguably the most racist society on earth, whose existence has depended on nonstop violence, theft, tyranny and abuse since its very inception." 

The real Israel whose regime is deliberately and methodically starving Palestinian civilians to death by the tens of thousands for being the wrong ethnicity, notes Johnstone. 

Not the Israel Netanyahu claims to be killing barbarians in “defense” of Western civilization against “Islamic fundamentalists,” but the real Israel whose snipers such as South African Aaron Bayhack routinely murder Palestinian children by shooting them in the head. 

In a similar vein, Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland also made his views clear. He asserted that the ICC arrest warrants would accelerate Israel’s path to international pariahdom. 

And that it will strengthen calls for arms embargos of Israel, as well as calls for criminal investigations into lower-level Israeli political and military figures. 

Interestingly, Freedland believes that Netanyahu walked into a trap set by the Hamas resistance movement, by lashing out in ways that would destroy Israel’s international legitimacy. 

ICC trial of Netanyahu, Gallant would be ‘huge step’ for intl. justice: Legal scholar

If Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant are held accountable by the International Criminal Court, it would represent a huge step for international justice, says a US-based legal scholar.

Undoubtedly, Israel's reputation is in the pits. The writers I have quoted above are but a sampling of analysts who overwhelmingly allude to the fact that public opinion is not in Israel's favor. 

Even before the ICC decision, data from a Pew Research Center survey pointed to more Americans thinking that Israel’s military operation against Hamas had gone too far.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs also confirmed an increase in sympathy for Palestinians —and the opposite for Israel. It attributed it to human rights violations by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.

Israel now faces the further indignity of being led by a man wanted by the ICC for war crimes. 

None other than the settler-colonial regime and its army of propagandists can deny the fact that ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant mark a watershed moment in international justice. 

Let's be clear too, this wouldn't have been possible without courageous and rigorous on-the-ground reporting by Palestinian journalists who brave threats to bring out the truth.

More than 180 of these journalists have been killed since October last year, deliberately targeted by Netanyahu and his criminal gang of warlords, for documenting truthful accounts of the genocide. 

Iqbal Jassat is an executive member of Media Review Network, Johannesburg, South Africa.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)

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