S2 E75. In the Prisoner’s Dock: Israel’s PM and Former Defense Minister

First it was the International Court of Justice. South Africa brought a charge of genocide against Israel to be heard and decided in that august forum. That case has been in abeyance since the initial hearing on preliminary issues held in January, 2024. Soon after we began hearing about the International Criminal Court – which has the jurisdiction to hold individuals to account for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and aggression. In May, ICC Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, K.C., appeared before a panel of ICC judges to ask that they issue arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and then Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, for having engaged in crimes against humanity by promoting conditions conducive to mass starvation - targeting the people living in the Gaza Strip. These alleged crimes were purported to have dated back to October 8, 2023, a day on which Hamas terrorists continued their mass slaughter of Israeli civilians in the southern part of the country where they had invaded. Israel was in the second day of an existential war. The suggestion that its leaders were plotting mass starvation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is beyond absurd. But apparently the ICC judges agreed with Mr. Khan and arrest warrants were issued on November 21. In this episode we speak with Israeli professor and international law expert, Yuval Shany. We get into all the issues and questions I expect many listeners have: Can the ICC do this? Why did it issue the warrants? And – what happens next? Within hours of the arrest warrants being issued there was a furious reaction from Israel as well as the United States – both on the part of President Biden and President-elect Trump. Whatever one’s criticism of Israel may be, this step by the ICC calls into question whether the institution is operating in the interest of the highest ideals of justice or at the behest of nefarious political interests. Professor Shany and I unpack it all.

State of Tel Aviv is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Professor Yuval Shany is the Hersch Lauterpacht Chair in International Law and former Dean of the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a member of the UN Human Rights Committee from 2013 to 2020 (and served between 2018-2019 as Chair of the Committee). He currently teaches at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies at King’s College in London and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and serves as a Senior Fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and as an academic visitor in the Oxford Ethics in AI Institute.

Podcast Notes:

Link to NGO Monitor website, as mentioned in the closing remarks of the podcast.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stateoftelaviv.com/subscribe