Without Including Biden and Blinken and the Issue of Genocide, International Criminal Court Arrest Warrants Are a Sham
The International Criminal Court finally indicted Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, but this action is merely performative. If arrest warrants do not include war criminals like Joe Biden and other U.S. officials, they are ultimately empty attempts to maintain a semblance of legitimacy.
After months of procedural stalling, allegations of sexual harassment against the lead prosecutor and systematic threats from the United States and its Western allies, it did not appear that the International Criminal Court (ICC) would even execute the final phase of the criminal indictment process and Israeli impunity would continue. But on November 20, 2024, six months to the day after Karim Khan, chief prosecutor for the court, submitted his request for the indictments of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, the court finally indicted Netanyahu, Gallant and threw in Mohammed Deif who Israel claims to have assassinated, as they did to Sinwar and Haniyeh.
There was sincere rejoicing around the world after the arrest warrants were issued. Finally, it was thought, there would be some accountability for the brutal savagery of the Israeli settler-colonial apartheid state’s horrific crimes against the Palestinian people. For some, it also meant that just maybe the days of the ICC acting as a convenient instrument of Western white power might actually be over.
However, there are two elements to this indictment that reaffirm the biases and double standards of the ICC.