LEO MCKINSTRY: The deluded, partisan International Criminal Court has gone too far this time

The International Criminal Court likes to present itself as an instrument of global justice. But that is a perfect illustration of the depths of its self-delusion.

In reality, the court is a vengeful, partisan body, whose lopsided choice of targets make a mockery of its claims to be an unbiased tribunal.

When the court was established in 2002, Kofi Annan, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, declared that its work would be ‘the cause of all humanity’.

Today, such rhetoric sounds increasingly absurd, given the ICC’s ugly obsession with Israel. Like so many other global institutions, including the UN itself, the court has developed a neurotic hostility towards the Jewish state, an attitude reflected in its determination to drag its leaders into the dock for war crimes.

It is a vindictive campaign that reached a new low yesterday when the court issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant. 

In an attempt to give the illusion of balance, the court also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, the military commander of Hamas, the terror group that controls Gaza.

But far from strengthening its credibility, this merely further exposed the court’s unfitness to sit in judgment over the Middle East. 

For a start, the issuing of a warrant for Deif borders on the farcical, since he was reported to have been killed in July.

The International Criminal Court likes to present itself as an instrument of global justice. But that is a perfect illustration of the depths of its self-delusion, says Leo McKinstry 

The court issued arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) and former defence minister Yoav Gallant

More importantly, by including Deif alongside the two Israeli politicians, the court shamefully implied that there is a moral equivalence between Islamist terrorists and representatives of a democratically elected government.

That pretence is a disgraceful distortion of the truth, revealing a contempt for morality and recent history. 

Supporters of the court’s move point to the tough action that Israel has taken recently in Gaza and Lebanon, which reportedly has left 44,000 people dead and 2.3 million citizens displaced.

‘War crimes and crimes against humanity cannot go unpunished,’ said Belgium’s deputy prime minister Petra de Sutter, a member of the Greens and Europe’s most senior transgender politician.

But such a stance ignores the fact that Israel has only acted in response to the brutal invasion of its territory by Hamas on October 7 last year, when the terror group carried out an orgy of murder, rape and hostage-taking.

Israel was justified in protecting its sovereignty and citizens by destroying Hamas’s capacity to inflict terror, just as it was justified in attacking Hezbollah, which had kept up an unceasing barrage of rockets fired indiscriminately at its towns and cities.

Instead of cheering on the prosecution of Israel, the world’s leading governments and institutions should show solidarity with the Jewish state, the only true democracy in the Middle East and a remarkable beacon of prosperity and technological advance. 

The US has been consistent in denouncing the court’s manoeuvres as ‘outrageous’ but Britain, disturbingly, has been far less steadfast. When the court first requested approval of the arrest warrants in May, the Tory government objected.

Palestinians walk amid the destruction following an Israeli strike in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 10, 2024

An injured man reacts while sitting on the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip

Netanyahu referred to British human rights lawyer Karim Khan as ‘one of the great anti-Semites of modern times’

But all that changed when Labour came to power and David Lammy was installed as Foreign Secretary. 

One of his first acts was to withdraw Britain’s reservations about the warrants, claiming that international law should take its course.

Netanyahu was understandably furious at the act of treachery by a nation which is meant to be one of Israel’s strongest allies. So fierce was his indignation that he allegedly snubbed Lammy when he visited Israel in August.

But Netanyahu has even stronger feelings of anger towards the ICC’s chief prosecutor, British human rights lawyer Karim Khan, whom he has described as ‘one of the great anti-Semites of modern times’. 

For all Khan’s eagerness to get Israel in the dock, there is a dark cloud hanging over him, not just relating to accusations of prejudice, but also multiple, serious allegations of sexual harassment by a female colleague.

In testimony that has been backed up by other women working in this field, Khan is said to have made unwanted advances, including touching, groping and pressing his tongue in her ear. 

Khan said last month there was ‘no truth to suggestions of such misconduct’ and added that he had requested an inquiry into what he termed apparent ‘disinformation’ related to the case.

There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy about this whole saga. Khan has said he was motivated to act against Israel by requests from South Africa, the Comoros Islands, Djibouti and Bangladesh.

All these nations have far worse human rights records than Israel, which is a land of freedom. Political liberties are entrenched there far more deeply than among any of its neighbours.

For the sake of humanity and democracy, the Jewish state must be defended, not subjected to this judicial farce.