We must pursue an advocacy campaign against the ICC in The Hague - opinion

Israel should not have been surprised by the decision of Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. It had been ignoring warning lights which have been flashing for a long time. 

Khan was selected to replace the previous ICC prosecutor, the controversial and hostile-to-Israel African Muslim Fatou Bensouda, who had begun the process of investigating Hamas’ heinous war crimes – alongside what she referred to as “complaints against Israel for sexual crimes against Palestinian women.” After Bensouda, Khan took the “investigation” a step further. 

Bensouda had loyally served her country, Gambia under the rule of the former dictator, Yahya Jammeh. Two of the regime’s victims later testified before a commission investigating crimes committed in Gambia.

The victims accused Bensouda of involvement in human rights violations and turning a blind eye to the torture suffered by opponents of the regime. 

Support from UN Secretary-General

Khan is joined is supported by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, infamous for the “context” statement he made after October 7. 

Prosecutor Khan speaks of crimes committed against the “State of Palestine” and bold-facedly finds symmetry between the Nazi Hamas murderers and the Israel Defense Forces. 

Let us take this opportunity to remind the impudent prosecutor that not only is there is no such country as “Palestine” but that Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the majority of the world. 

Chief prosecutor Khan has surrounded himself with jurists, among whom are hostile Muslims, affiliated with known antisemitic organizations. Israel did not pay enough attention to those at prosecutor Khan’s side who supported him in his disgraceful decision. 

A little background on the participants in this theater of the absurd: Born in Scotland, Karim Asad Ahmed Khan is a member of a Muslim family that immigrated from Pakistan – and an international expert in constitutional law. He formed a legal team that escorted him during the “investigation.” 

Among the hostile team that pushed him to request arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant are well-known Israel haters, such as British Lebanese attorney Amal Clooney (wife of actor George Clooney) and Andreas Laursen, a lawyer from Denmark. 

Laursen, married to a Palestinian woman, previously lived in Ramallah and specialized in a Palestinian “human rights” organization listed by the Israel Defense Ministry as a terrorist group. He also assisted the Palestinian police and has connections with the attorney general of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Back in the Fatou era at the prosecutor’s office. 

Laursen played a central role in compiling evidence and submitting a request to investigate Israel for war crimes Larsen demonstrated his contemptibility by asking the families of the Israeli hostages, at the meeting, whether they were emissaries of the Israeli government. 

Another name to beware of is that of American Jewish jurist, Prof. Theodore Meron, the attorney for the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry in the late 1960s. Prof. Meron’s ugly side was revealed when he wrote in a report to the ministry that he had prepared the establishment of civilian settlements on territories “occupied” by Israel in the Six Day War and been involved in the demolition of the homes of terror suspects, as well as their deportation, in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

We repeatedly see how senior members of the United Nations – past and current – present accusations against Israel that outrageous and delusional. It would behoove them to dig into their past and that of those around them, and the antisemitic stances they have taken over the years – even before October 7. 

The UN institutions’ moral bankruptcy and antisemitic attitude toward Israel clearly indicate the long-standing shamelessness of the United Nations.

While evading its duty to visit the hostages, the UN did not hesitate to visit the damned terrorists, whose murderous acts are responsible for our victims. The UN and its institutions never miss any opportunity to dive ever deeper into moral decline. 

Believe it or not, the members of the UN Security Council held a moment of silence in memory of the arch-murderer, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi – known as “the butcher of Tehran” for massacring thousands of his people –  who crashed to his death alongside his foreign minister, Abdel Hayyan.

Of the corrupt Abbas, the ICC prosecutor in The Hague said, “I am sure he will be fair and impartial.” This is indeed the embodiment of cynicism. 

Over the generations, UN resolutions against Israel, such as “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”(1975), are automatically supported by totalitarian regimes such as Iran, South Africa, Qatar, and others, some of which have committed countless crimes against humanity – or supported corrupt rulers that have done so.

THIS IS the place to mention the report by Richard Goldstone, the South African researcher appointed by the UN in 2009 to investigate Israel following Operation Cast Lead. The Goldstone Report was proven to be false and disgraced the UN. 

In April 2011, Goldstone published an article in The Washington Post titled, “Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel and War Crimes,” in which he claimed that if there had been cooperation by Israel and if he had known “then” what he knows “now,” the report’s conclusions would have been very different, especially regarding the accusations of “possible war crimes” against Israel.

Goldson also claimed that the UN Human Rights Council was biased against Israel. More about that in another column. 

The recommendation to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Galant could lead to further UN decisions against Israel, such as sanctions, if the Jewish state does not stop the war. 

Israel’s information-dissemination system is of paramount importance, particularly in these times, and the Foreign Ministry has allocated a substantial additional budget for this purpose. 

It is not too late. It is time to start a clear and comprehensive campaign against the ICC prosecutor’s application for warrants to arrest Israeli leaders.

We must fight for global public opinion and show how the ICC in The Hague not only defends but also collaborates with terrorism. 

The writer is CEO of Radios 100FM, honorary consul of Nauru, vice dean of the consular staff and vice president of the Ambassadors Club of Israel.