Although Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute, the United States never ratified it. In fact, George W. Bush withdrew the U.S.'s signature from the statute in 2002. Congress then enacted the American Service-Members' Protection Act to prevent prosecution of U.S. armed forces in the ICC. One provision, called the "Hague Invasion Act," authorized the use of force to extricate any U.S. or allied national detained by the ICC. The Bush administration blackmailed 100 countries that were parties to the statute by forcing them to sign bilateral immunity agreements pledging not to turn over U.S. persons to the ICC or the U.S. government would withhold foreign aid to them.
Bensouda's term will expire in 2021 and the Court's consideration of the jurisdictional issue could extend beyond her service. That may lessen any negative consequences she might suffer.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted Bensouda for her intention to initiate an investigation, charging her with denying "the truth when she says that the very act of Jews living in their ancestral homeland, the land of the Bible, that this is a war crime." Likewise, Netanyahu's political rival Benny Gantz said that "the Israeli army is one of the most moral militaries in the world" and "the Israeli army and State of Israel do not commit war crimes."
In fact, there is overwhelming evidence of Israel's commission of war crimes, including willful killing; willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health; unlawful and wanton, extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity; and intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population.
Moreover, by the end of 2018, Israel had unlawfully transferred 628,000 Israeli settlers to settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Rome Statute lists as a war crime, "The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."
"After 71 years of continuing Nakba and 52 years of military occupation, the time has come to end impunity for Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the furtherance of its aggressive colonization of Palestinian territory," the Palestinian human rights organizations declared. Nakba, which is Arabic for "catastrophe," refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, as 750,000 Palestinians fled or were evicted from their homes from 1947 to 1949 during the creation of Israel. In 1967, after the Six-Day War, Israel militarily occupied the Palestinian territories.
Accountability for Israeli war crimes is long overdue. The ICC should immediately ratify Bensouda's investigation.
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