Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders says he supports the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, saying “all launched indiscriminate attacks against civilians and caused unimaginable human suffering”.
“If the world does not uphold international law, we will descend into further barbarism,” he said in a post on X, alongside a longer statement.
“I agree with the ICC,” Sanders added.
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His statement mirrored global reaction in favour of the ICC indictments in contrast to most US and Israeli politicians who condemned the global legal move to see accountability for the repeated and continuous Israeli atrocities in the besieged enclave Gaza.
Netanyahu, Gallant, and Deif have all launched indiscriminate attacks against civilians and caused unimaginable human suffering.
If the world does not uphold international law, we will descend into further barbarism.
I agree with the ICC. pic.twitter.com/OuErxOFRR9
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 21, 2024
On Wednesday, Sanders sought to block US supplies of offensive weapons to Israel but his draft law was heavily defeated.
The defendants are now internationally wanted suspects and ICC member states are under legal obligation to arrest them. Neither the US nor Israel recognise ICC jurisdiction.
The court said it had issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October until at least 20 May, 2024” and which related to the use of starvation and the deliberate targeting of medical facilities.
‘Important precedent’
Dr Francis Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, called the ICC’s latest move a “very important precedent”.
“In my opinion, if the ICC had prosecuted Israeli leaders after Operation Cast Lead . . . maybe all of this could have been avoided, if prosecutions were initiated 15 years ago,” Boyle told Al Jazeera.
Boyle said the Biden administration is guilty of “aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and outright genocide against the Palestinians”.
He said this was a “far more serious genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza than was inflicted on the Bosnians,” referring to the timeframes of each genocide in comparison with the number of people killed.
Israel is now “extending this to Lebanon, and it does appear the [occupied] West Bank is next in its sights,” Boyle said.
“It’s a very serious situation.
An international human rights lawyer, Michael Mansfield, described Israel is an “unjust state that has never respected the rule of law”.
Israel was trying to “deflect responsibility” and its objective had been to destroy Gaza and make it “uninhabitable”, he said.
Netanyahu would not end the war in Gaza, he said, until this objective was met.
“If he ends the war, he is in trouble. He’s in trouble if he leaves the country … and if he stays in Israel . . . he’s awaiting prosecution there,” Mansfield said.
The issuing of the ICC warrants “makes a difference to world opinion, because I don’t think that the regime in Israel have recognised the extent in which they are being isolated — morally isolated”, he said.
