ANALYSIS – Not surprisingly, the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor is also of Muslim heritage. Amal Clooney, the Lebanese-born British human rights lawyer and wife of uber-liberal actor George Clooney, published a report that supported the ICC arrest warrant applications for Israeli and Hamas leaders, the Clooney Foundation for Justice announced on Monday.
Key congressional Republicans blasted the announcement. As did Joe Biden.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said he has requested arrest warrants for top Israel and Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes.
The leaders include the democratically-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as his defense minister Yoav Gallant. The two have overseen Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza since the Palestinian militant group's deadly Oct. 7 raid on Israel.
Israel is not a member of the ICC.
The other arrest warrants are for Hamas terror chief Yahya Sinwar; Mohammed Al-Masri, the commander-in-chief of the military wing of Hamas – who is widely known as Deif – and Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas' political bureau.
Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and other allies.
Ms. Clooney, a non-practicing Muslim, daughter of Shia Druze father and Sunni mother, noted in her statement, “I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine.”
“More than four months ago, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court asked me to assist him with evaluating evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza.”
Clooney is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School in New York City, the Ivy League school recently buffeted by violent pro-Hamas protestors and building seizures.
Khan is a Muslim of mixed Pakistani and British descent and is married to a Malaysian lawyer who is also Muslim.
U.S. News reported:
Clooney and five other experts, including two former judges at criminal tribunals in The Hague, said they had been convened at Khan's request in January to assess the material he provided them with and to offer legal advice.
In a report dated May 20, they said they had carried out “an extensive process of review and analysis”, including witness statements and authenticated videos and photographs obtained by ICC investigators.
Details of the application and the evidence have not been made public.
The panel said it was “satisfied that the process was fair, rigorous and independent and that the Prosecutor's applications for arrest warrants are grounded in the law and the facts.”
The outlet added:
“Israel is fighting a just war for survival, and the ICC is attempting to equate Israeli officials to the evil terrorists who perpetrated the October 7th massacre,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a Monday statement, adding: “In the absence of leadership from the White House, Congress is reviewing all options, including sanctions, to punish the ICC and ensure its leadership faces consequences if they proceed.”
Across the Capitol, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) vowed to “feverishly work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both chambers to levy damning sanctions against the ICC.”
In a statement, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that “Khan's kangaroo court has no jurisdiction in Israel to pursue these anti-Semitic and politically motivated ‘charges,'” adding that he looks “forward to making sure neither Khan, his associates nor their families will ever set foot again in the United States.”
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee blasted the action as “absurd” — saying in a statement the decision to simultaneously pursue arrest warrants against Hamas leadership and Israeli officials creates a “false moral equivalency” between the two groups' actions.
Khan said in a statement that he had reasonable grounds to believe the five men “bear criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Israel and many of its allies strongly oppose the measure.
Netanyahu said he rejects “with disgust” the prosecutor's “comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas.”
The prime minister raised the matter in his meetings with Britain's Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and sought their help.
Meanwhile, as always, Republicans have Israel's back.
On 24 April 2024, 12 American Republican senators threatened Khan and other U.N. jurists and their families with personal consequences if the ICC sought an international arrest warrant against Netanyahu or other members of the Israeli government, citing the American Service-Members' Protection Act, which specifically includes “all means.”
The signatories said they would view any arrest warrant as “a threat not only to Israel's sovereignty, but also to the sovereignty of the United States.”
They then threatened: “Target Israel and we will target you,” and that any further action would “end all American support for the ICC” and “exclude [Khan and his associates and employees] and their families from the United States.”
The letter ended: “You have been warned.”
Since the arrest warrant was announced, Politico reported that, “Republicans on key foreign policy panels blasted the decision and warned that they would make good on threats from earlier this month to punish the international tribunal, of which neither the United States nor Israel are members, if it went after Israeli officials.”
And while not announcing any actions against the ICC, Joe Biden said the move by the ICC prosecutor was “outrageous,” adding: “Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas.”
Later, in a rare show of unity, Secretary of State Tony Blinken signaled that Team Biden would support bipartisan action in Congress against the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in response to its spurious decision.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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