ARREST warrants for genocide for Israeli PM Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant were finally issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) this week and were welcomed by Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and their allies and supporters worldwide.
Hamas, the elected government of Gaza welcomed the arrest warrants, but Hamas’ political bureau member Basem Naim said in a statement, ‘it remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by all means by all countries around the world.’
Hamas also called on the ICC to expand its scope to other Israeli officials.
The Palestinian Authority, which governs the occupied West Bank, said ‘the ICC’s decision represents hope and confidence in international law and its institutions’.
The head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) described the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant as the ‘end and political death’ of Israel, calling it a ‘regime that today lives in absolute political isolation in the world and its officials can no longer travel to other countries’.
In a statement, the South African government welcomed the ICC decision and said it marked a ‘significant step towards justice for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Palestine’.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said the warrants were ‘an extremely significant step’.
However, both Israel and its US sponsor, both non-supporters of the ICC, hit out at the decision to issue the warrants, producing a torrent of abusive propaganda against the Palestinian struggle for national liberation.
The Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, includes 124 state parties across six continents. Under the statute, countries that are part of the ICC are legally bound to enforce its arrest warrants, according to international human rights lawyer Jonathan Kuttab.
‘The law operates on the basis of a presumption that people will obey it. That’s how all laws are created,’ Kuttab said.
‘You expect everybody to respect the law. Those who don’t respect the law are themselves violating the law.’
Netanyahu has predictably rejected the charges, calling them anti-Semitic. The US president Joe Biden, an ardent supporter, financier and armourer of Israel, immediately condemned the ICC arrest warrants saying that the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant was ‘outrageous’ in a statement issued by the White House on Thursday:
Biden added: ‘Let me be clear once again: whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.’
There was also a craven response by the British Labour government with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper refusing to confirm whether the Israeli prime minister would be arrested if he came to Britain.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister said he backed the court’s decision, with Downing Street confirming Sir Keir would respect the ICC’s jurisdiction once a UK court ratified the warrant.
But his official spokesman said: ‘A domestic court process would be required before Netanyahu faced arrest if he set foot in the UK.’
What is clear is that the major imperialist powers need Israel as part of their domination of the oil rich Middle East.
What is also clear is that the workers of the US, the UK and the EU must be mobilised to smash not just Israel but the ruling classes of the US and the UK who stand with Israel and are desperate to see the Palestinians and the working class of the world smashed and broken.
Workers in the UK and the US must now support the liberation struggle by calling general strikes of the working class to bring down their capitalist regimes and to create the conditions where the workers of the world smash racism and go forward arm in arm to the World Socialist Republic.
This will establish the victory of the Palestinian people with a secular Palestinian state and with Jerusalem as its capital!
Victory to the world socialist revolution and put an end to imperialism once and for all!