It’s time to refer a case against the USA to the ICJ and ICC
The USA is complicit in Israel’s crimes and must be held accountable
On August 7, Türkiye (or Turkey) showed courage and stood up for humanity. It became the seventh country asking to join the case that South Africa brought against Israel for ‘genocide’ on December 29, 2023 at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest court.
This is the case that has already been joined by Colombia, Nicaragua, Spain, Libya, Palestine and Mexico with Belgium waiting in the wings to join. Note that only one Arab country besides Palestine, namely Libya, has joined the case.
Why such reticence by most countries, especially Arab countries, to join South Africa’s well-reasoned case? It’s because of pressure from the United States coupled with insecure Arab rulers who feel they need U.S. support to stay in power. It’s that simple.
America says that it supports the international rule of law and then undermines and attacks the workings of international courts! Is this what a self-declared moral world leader should do? How complicit is America in Israel’s rogue reign of terror? America has given more aid to Israel than to any other country. Not that Israel is poor, being in fact richer than France, but because of the power of the Zionist lobby in the United States. There’s much more than the billions of dollars we have given to Israel every year. Israel gets top-of-the-line arms that no other country gets. Then there are bombs and more bombs, even hundreds of 2,000 lb. bombs that destroy blocks of buildings and kill indiscriminately. Israel kills and kills in Gaza. They get intelligence and political support at the UN and elsewhere, including arm twisting of leaders around the world with threats that they had better support Israel or else. Yes, the United States says that it has asked Israel to prevent civilian deaths but then in the next breath Washington gives more bombs and twists more arms in support of Israel! America is openly complicit and guilty of a partnership in Israeli crimes.
The United States has irrationally attacked the South African case at the ICJ and the pending case at the ICC. It has even threatened justices and both international courts with sanctions. America says that it supports the international rule of law and then undermines and attacks the workings of international courts! Is this what a self-declared moral world leader should do?
Do Americans see how we are eroding every shred of our credibility? Do we believe that this is making friends for us around the world? Do we feel good about the slaughter of innocent women and children and our partnership therein?
What has Israel ‘achieved’ in Gaza? The reported figures are that Israel has killed around 40,000 Palestinians of which roughly 80 percent are women and children. American doctors who visit Gaza claim that there are thousands more buried under the rubble. Thousands more dead who do not appear in the casualty figures—those who have died from simple infections that were not treated or from other war-related wounds because of lack of everyday medicine. Hospitals have been hollowed out. Amputations are carried out without anesthetics. Food is so scarce that many are on the verge of starvation. Drinkable water is rationed. Israel cuts off the flow of food, water and medicines and blames the United Nations for shortages and starvation. There are reported outbreaks of cholera and polio. An American doctor took several suitcases filled with medicines, but was barred from taking more than one of the suitcases into Gaza by Israel! Most Palestinians have no shelter to speak of. The people who are left in Gaza have been forced to move around about a dozen times, packing up their meager belongings and trekking with their children to another place to face yet another move. They live in squalor, reminiscent of the Dark Ages.
Americans must act to avoid being bullied by Israel and its supporters within the United States as they take us down a catastrophic path.It is not just the war in Gaza, Israel has ramped up its carnage in the West Bank where Jewish settlers and Israeli forces have killed hundreds and imprisoned thousands. Horrific reports of torture have also been reported and documented. “When we got off the bus, a soldier said to us: ‘Welcome to hell.” Those are the words of 45-year-old Fouad Hassan, a father of five from Nablus in the occupied West Bank, who was recently held in Israel’s Megiddo Prison. His words open a devastating report from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, exposing Israel’s rapid conversion of Megiddo and eleven other prisons into a network of ‘torture camps’ following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.” (https://mail.aol.com/d/list/referrer=newMail&folders=1&accountIds=1&listFilter=NEWMAIL/messages/AJmGDyNYGI0pZrVaSQGCuEywUIc
How does Israel justify its actions and carnage? Arrogantly and inhumanely. Earlier senior Israelis claimed that all Gazans were responsible for the attack of October 7 and thus fair game, because they could have overthrown their government! So does Israeli logic mean that all Israelis are culpable for the carnage in Gaza and thus fair game wherever they are?
Are all Americans culpable for the horrors of Vietnam and Cambodia, and for other military incursions around the world? And today in Gaza, are Americans culpable for complicity in ongoing and past Israeli crimes given the fact that the U.S. funded them? Are all Americans fair game to anyone who wants to kill them?
America’s blind support for Israel’s rogue actions is everywhere to be seen. In its latest threat in support of Israel, the U.S. has warned Iran that its newly elected government and economy could suffer a devastating blow if it were to mount a major attack on Israel in the aftermath of Israel’s attack on Iran’s consulate in Syria and its assassination of the Hamas leader, Haniyeh, who was on an official visit to Iran. Israel can do what it wants and the U.S. will support it, but others cannot defend themselves when attacked—a logic that is inexplicable.
Israel, feeling protected by America, does its own bidding too. Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich said that allowing 2 million civilians in Gaza to die of hunger is ‘justified and moral.’ (https://www.ft.com/content/8885c13c-eada-4bf8-b896-f7a242ade641?segmentId=3f81fe28-ba5d-8a93-616e-4859191fabd8). There’s much more: for instance, after Erdogan’s statement in support of joining the case at the ICJ, a legal move that contained no threats, Israeli Foreign Minister Katz threatened Erdogan on X that he was “following in the footsteps” of Saddam Hussein by threatening Israel. “Just let him remember what happened there [in Iraq] and how it ended [for Saddam Hussein],” said Katz, referring to the Iraqi president’s 2003 capture by United States forces and his later execution. Katz seems confident that the United States will always come to rescue Israel no matter what. Later Erdogan compared Netanyahu to Hitler, “Just as genocidal Hitler ended, so will genocidal Netanyahu,” the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs added. “Just as the genocidal Nazis were held accountable, so will those who try to destroy the Palestinians,” Turkey continued. “Humanity will stand by the Palestinians. You will not be able to destroy the Palestinians.”
America is more isolated today than at any other time since the Vietnam War and is traveling on a dangerous road, where neither the dollar, military might or Hollywood could catch us as we fallThis is the Israel that is our partner, the Israel we support in every way and for which we tarnish our standing around the world. As the adage goes, if you want to know who someone really is, look at his friends. Israel is our ‘closest’ friend!
Americans must act to avoid being bullied by Israel and its supporters within the United States as they take us down a catastrophic path. This will take courage. The Zionist lobby in the United States uses its money and propaganda machine to direct America’s foreign policy in the Middle East. Just consider how viciously the Zionist lobby goes after any U.S. lawmaker who dares to stand up to them and express a policy view. As reported in the New York Times: “It was the second time in recent months that AIPAC has played a critical role in a Democratic primary race.” In June, another candidate backed by AIPAC, George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, defeated Representative Jamaal Bowman of New York, another squad member who had opposed providing funding to Israel for the war. “Including the losses of Democrat Jamaal Bowman and Republican Representative Bob Good, Representative [Corey]Bush’s [recent] defeat represents the third incumbent to have lost over their lack of an ironclad commitment to standing with America’s ally Israel,” Mr. Wittmann [spokesman for AIPAC] said.
If (by Israeli logic) Americans are responsible for the policies of their government, we’d better watch out. Shouldn’t we stand up and inject a little morality into our foreign policy? If we don’t, who else could bring about the needed change in the U.S. policy toward Israel? First up, Arabs.
Arab rulers are truly shameful. A number have sway over the United States—with oil, natural gas, money and strategic positions in the 2 billion-strong Muslim world—but they seem afraid to raise their heads for fear of losing U.S. support to stay in power. Even setting aside the powerful economic weapons they could quietly use over the United States, they also have the international courts—ICJ and ICC—that they have been afraid to tap up to now.
Arab, and indeed more Muslim countries, should immediately join the South African case at the ICJ. This case could go beyond the genocide in Gaza as the ICJ recently ruled: “Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal. The ICJ rendered its all-encompassing judgment on Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and its settlements, calling for an end to Israel’s presence there.”
Arab and Muslim countries, equipped with morality, honor and dignity, should go further, and go to the heart of the Palestinian tragedy, directly confronting the United States, Israel’s chief backer and enabler. They could (1) join the South African case at the ICJ and (2) file a similar case against the United States for complicity in Israel’s crimes. The court would have to, in my opinion, accept the case to preserve any semblance of impartiality and its credibility. Yes, it would take years to adjudicate and would have no legal enforcement, but the shock of it would put a dagger in the heart of America’s blind and irrational support for Israel. Arab and Muslim countries could but wouldn’t dare, take a third step by referring one or more U.S. leaders to the ICC, again for complicity. Neither of these initiatives might go anywhere in the end, but the shock value would be beyond compare.
If the U.S. does nothing and if Arab and Muslim rulers continue to wallow in their shame, then some Arab rulers would be at serious risk of internal turmoil and even civil war or revolution. They seem to be oblivious to the mood of their people, who may feel responsible for the complicity of their rulers with the United States and thereby with Israel.
Much of the world has lost respect for the United States because of its support of Israel, for its unwillingness to stop the carnage and restore the legitimate rights of the Palestinians. America is more isolated today than at any other time since the Vietnam War and is traveling on a dangerous road, where neither the dollar, military might or Hollywood could catch us as we fall.
Hossein Askari is an emeritus professor of business and international affairs, George Washington University
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