ICC Has No Jurisdiction Over Israeli-Hamas War – U.S. Insists
The United States on Monday, May 20, 2024 said that it reject the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) equivalence of Israel with Hamas, stressing it was shameful.
This was United States declared that it has made it clear since well before the current conflict that that ICC has no jurisdiction over the Israeli-Hamas war.
These were contained in a statement by the United States Secretary of State, Mr Tony Blinken, who noted that Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans.
Blinken therefore said that the United States fundamentally rejected the announcement from the Prosecutor of the ICC that he is applying for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, together with warrants for Hamas terrorists.
Blinken specifically said that moreover, In the words of Blinken; “The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the Prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed.
“In other situations, the Prosecutor deferred to national investigations and worked with states to allow them time to investigate. The Prosecutor did not afford the same opportunity to Israel, which has ongoing investigations into allegations against its personnel.
“There are also deeply troubling process questions. Despite not being a member of the court, Israel was prepared to cooperate with the Prosecutor. In fact, the Prosecutor himself was scheduled to visit Israel as early as next week to discuss the investigation and hear from the Israeli Government.
“The Prosecutor’s staff was supposed to land in Israel today to coordinate the visit. Israel was informed that they did not board their flight around the same time that the Prosecutor went on cable television to announce the charges,” he said. Blinken said that these and other circumstances call into question the legitimacy and credibility of the investigation, stressing that fundamentally, the decision does nothing to help, and could jeopardize, ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would get hostages out and surge humanitarian assistance in, which are the goals the United States continues to pursue relentlessly.
