Shurat Hadin Applauds ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's Departure And Urges The Us To Continue Its Sanctions
By BJLife Israel Newsroom
Posted on 12/16/20
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, will be leaving her post in the coming days. The Gambian born attorney assumed office at the ICC in 2012. In 2015, the ICC admitted the Palestinian Authority as a "state member" and the Palestinians were permitted to demand a war crimes investigation of Israel and the IDF shortly thereafter. In addition, Bensouda has opened a war crime investigation against the United States over the actions of American armed forces operating in Afghanistan.
Neither Israel nor the United States are signatories to the Rome Treaty nor are they members of the Court. Accordingly, it is their position that the ICC does not have jurisdiction to investigate or prosecute their military officers and troops. Both states have refused to cooperate with the ICC investigation which they contend is politically motivated.
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The US, led by Secretary of State MIke Pompeo, has taken an extremely aggressive response to Bensouda's investigation. The US has brought sanctions against ICC officials, freezing their assets in American banks and placing travel bans upon them in protest. Secretary Pompeo has warned the ICC that it wants the investigations of the US military and its allies, such as Israel, immediately shut down or further sanctions will be implemented.This past September 2, 2020, Bensouda was named a "specially designated national" by the United States government, which forbids all American persons and companies from doing business with her. In a statement this week as she leaves office, Bensouda condemned the US measures against her which she labeled as "unprecedented and wholly unacceptable threats, attacks and sanctions"
Bensouda stated: "It is my sincere hope that the US reverses its aggressive policy of antagonism towards the court. No one wins from such attacks. It is a dangerous precedent for a rule-based international system”.
Israel is unsure of the timing and status of the ongoing ICC investigation. The ICC is focusing, preliminarily on two issues - the operations of the IDF in Gaza during the 2014 conflict and the building of Jewish communities in the West Bank which the Palestinians allege is a violation of the Geneva Convention. Shurat HaDin has been active in taking legal measures to thwart the investigation. Moreover, no one is quite sure what policy the incoming Biden Administration will initiate towards the ICC. Will the US continue the current hardline policy or will they seek to cancel the US sanctions and travel bans against ICC officials and implement a more accommodating relationship?
The Europeans, who wield great power over the ICC, are fiercely lobbying for the US to drop the punitive sanctions and initiate a new approach. Recently Germany issued a statement on behalf of 74 member states of the ICC criticizing the US sanctions, saying that “sanctions are a tool to be used against those responsible for the most serious crimes, not against those seeking justice. Any attempt to undermine the independence of the Court should not be tolerated.” France also chimed in stating that: “France has been supporting the ICC from the very beginning, We are very strong supporters of international justice. We will certainly encourage the U.S. not only to drop sanctions or sanctions threats against the ICC, but we will also encourage them to support international justice and not undermine it.”
According to Shurat HaDin president Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: "No one will miss Bensouda or her bias against Israel, the IDF and the United States. Her outrageous policy whereby she believes she can extend her universal jurisdiction over non-signatories to the Rome Treaty and non-member states plainly evidences the dangerous politicization of the ICC and the weaponization of international law. Bensouda could not find a legal means to investigate the IDF and the US military for her strongly held opinion that everything they do is illegal, so she resorted to an unauthorized and unlawful path. We can only pray that the new US administration will not let down its guard and its protection of its allies and try to find a way to accommodate this biased institution. In the end the ICC's agenda is a serious threat to democracy and international security. This is why Israel and the US are being placed in the defendants' box, while Iran, Syria, China, Russia and Lebanon all get a free pass."