Today in summary
Political leaders in the US sharply defended Israel today after international criminal court chief prosecutor Karim Khan has caused a political earthquake by requesting arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials. The warrants, which include prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, were denounced by US president Joe Biden who doubled down on his comments during a speech for the Jewish American Heritage Month Celebration, held at the White House.
It will now be up to the ICC’s judges to determine whether to issue the warrants.
Here’s a rundown of what else has happened today so far:
President Biden used his speech at the Jewish American Heritage Month Celebration to highlight his administration’s work to crack down on antisemitism while reiterating his “ironclad” support for Israel.
Senators Mitch McConnel and Bernie Sanders voiced strong opinions from opposite sides of the debate, with McConnell condemning the ICC and Sanders championing its cause.
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, has also come out against the ICC’s request for arrest warrants against top Israeli and Hamas officials, calling them “baseless and illegitimate”.
US State Department officials also added criticisms of the ICC over it’s approach to Israel but said they would continue working with them to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin over actions taken against Ukrainian civilians.
The UK Foreign Office also objected to Khan’s request, saying it would not help the process of negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza.
US senator Lindsey Graham said he feels deceived by ICC staff, and accused Khan of rushing the decision to seek arrest warrants.
Khan thanked international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who he said acted as a special adviser in his investigation.
Biden concluded his speech by emphasizing his work to combat antisemitism in the US, calling it “absolutely despicable”. Pointing to a national strategy rolled out before last October, Biden said a new wave of financing amounting to $400 million has been made available for jewish nonprofits, schools, synagogues and other faith-based organizations to support their physical security.
He added that his administration has “put colleges on notice”. “The department has to investigate discrimination aggressively,” he said.
His remarks ended with a promise.
“Let me assure you as your president – you are not alone,” he said. You belong. You always will belong.” He thanked everyone in attendance. “In moments like this the ancient story of Jewish resilience endures because of its people. That’s what today is all about.”
Biden: 'we reject the ICC's application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders'
“I will always ensure that Israel has everything it needs to defend itself against Hamas and all its enemies,” Biden said. “We want Hamas to be defeated.”
But Biden also mentioned support for civilians in Gaza. “It’s heartbreaking,” he said, noting that his administration is working to bring the region together and a two-state solution.
“Let me be clear,” he added, “we reject the ICC’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. Whatever these warrants may imply, there’s no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.”
“What’s happening is not genocide.”
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Emhoff has just introduced President Biden, who noted he was honored to be introduced by the first-ever Jewish spouse.
The President talked about the important history of freedom of religion in the US and the important contributions of Jewish Americans, before adding that the reception comes during hard times. Noting the “fresh and ongoing” trauma inflicted on October 7 and in its aftermath, Biden promised that the work continued to free Israeli hostages taken by Hamas, noting his support for Israel is “ironclad”.
“We are going to get ‘em home,” he said of the hostages. “We are going to get em home, come hell or high water.”
The event kicked off with cheers as Second Gentlemen Emhoff, flanked by the president and vice president, heralded the administration’s support for the Jewish community. But, the celebratory tone shifted quickly.
“This is also a challenging time for our community,” he said. “It has been a dark and difficult 7 months. There is an epidemic of hate including a crisis of antisemitism in our country and around the world. We see it on our streets, our college campuses, and our places of worship.”
Adding that the work feels difficult, he encouraged the crowd. “We keep fighting because we have no choice but to fight.”
President Biden speaks at Jewish American Heritage Month Celebration
Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will be speaking soon at the Jewish American Heritage Month Celebration. At last year’s event, held at the White House, Biden focused on his support for Israel and his strategy to combat antisemitism.
“My support for Israel’s security remains longstanding and unwavering, including the right of Israel to defend itself against attacks,” Biden said last year. “And I’m proud – I’m proud of our support – and my colleagues that are here today as well – for Israel’s Iron Dome, which has intercepted thousands of rockets and saved countless lives in Israel.”
Stay tuned as we wait for this year’s event to begin.
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Even as US political figures continue to rail against the ICC over Israel and Hamas, Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, said the US is fully onboard with actions taken against Russia for crimes committed in the Ukrainian conflict.
In a press conference on Monday, following a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Matthew Miller, a state department spokesperson, said the US still supports the ICC and the “important work over the years to hold people accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
But National Security Council spokesman spokesman John Kirby claimed that there is a difference between what’s happening in Ukraine and what’s happening in Gaza.
“It is an actual war aim of Mr Putin to kill innocent Ukrainian people,” Kirby said, noting that targeting of civilians and infrastructure is evidence of that.
In Gaza, however, Kirby claimed the high toll taken on civilian lives was inadvertent. Meanwhile, as CNN reports, roughly 40% of Gaza’s population – more than 900,000 people – have been displaced in the past two weeks due to Israeli bombardment.
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Calling the ICC a “a rogue kangaroo court”, and its prosecutor “self-aggrandizing”, Senator Mitch McConnell vehemently criticized the move for arrest warrants in remarks on the Senate floor.
“Since the immediate aftermath of October 7, Israel, her allies, and Jewish people around the world have faced pernicious efforts to equate a sovereign nation’s self-defense with barbaric acts of terrorism,” McConnell said, linking the issue to the protests that erupted across university campuses against the violence that’s been inflicted on Palestinian civilians.
McConnell continued, calling the warrants for both leaders of Hamas and Israel are “the most noxious attempt at moral equivalence”. Using the move to question the legitimacy of the international criminal court, the Republican leader pushed his colleagues to act:
Support Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorist savages like Sinwar … reject the fiction that unaccountable bureaucrats in The Hague have any power over a sovereign nation that isn’t a signatory to its authority … commit to imposing significant costs on the court and its agents if it pursues shameful and baseless charges against Israel … and choose once and for all between actual justice and the rule of the loud campus mob.
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Bernie Sanders voices support for ICC arrest warrants request
Senator Bernie Sanders supports the request for arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders relating to the Israel-Gaza conflict, saying that the “ICC prosecutor is right to take these actions”, in a written statement released on Monday afternoon.
Noting that the warrants may or may not be carried out, he said: “It is imperative that the global community uphold international law.”
Here is Sanders’ statement in full:
In the last several years, the international criminal court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for political leaders who violate international law and engage in war crimes and crimes against humanity. That includes Russian president Vladimir Putin, whose illegal invasion of Ukraine initiated the most destructive war in Europe since world war II; Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who started the horrific war in Gaza by launching a terrorist attack against Israel, which killed 1,200 innocent men, women, and children; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, in response, has waged an unprecedented war of destruction against the entire Palestinian people, which has killed or injured over 5% of the population.
The ICC prosecutor is right to take these actions. These arrest warrants may or may not be carried out, but it is imperative that the global community uphold international law. Without these standards of decency and morality, this planet may rapidly descend into anarchy, never-ending wars, and barbarism.
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The rights group Amnesty International is not pleased with the British Foreign Office’s criticism of the international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan and his application for arrest warrants against Israel and Hamas’s leaders.
“To see the UK undermining the International Criminal Court like this is a real slap in the face for Israeli and Palestinian victims of war crimes and other grave human rights violations who sorely deserve justice,” Amnesty International UK’s head of government affairs Karla McLaren said in a statement. She continued:
By failing to recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction – which the court itself has established – the UK is placing itself on the wrong side of history and continuing a pattern of soft-pedalling over Israel’s crimes. This is deeply damaging for international justice and for the protection of civilians everywhere.
We need major change from the UK over the human rights crisis in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including a realisation that justice and accountability processes are the best way out of this decades-long crisis.
The UK should back the ICC chief prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants, get behind the ICJ genocide case, call for an immediate ceasefire and a massive scaling up of aid into Gaza, and it should order an immediate halt to further UK arms transfers to Israel.
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Biden ally Hakeem Jeffries joins in condemning ICC warrant request
Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the US House of Representatives, echoed Joe Biden’s rejection of the international criminal court chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister Yoav Gallant.
In a statement, the House minority leader said:
The arrest warrant request by the International Criminal Court against democratically elected members of the Israeli government is shameful and unserious. America’s commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad. I join President Joe Biden in strongly condemning any equivalence between Israel and Hamas, a brutal terrorist organization.
Biden has generally supported Israel since Hamas’s 7 October attack, though recently warned Benjamin Netanyahu against allowing its military to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, and held up a weapons shipment.
Despite Jeffries’s solidarity, rank-and-file Democrats are growing uneasy with Israel’s conduct in Gaza, and its impact on civilians. Here’s more on that:
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Inside Iran, the Guardian’s Deepa Parent reports that Ebrahim Raisi was remembered by many for his crackdown on nationwide protests that began after a woman died in custody following her arrest under the country’s hijab laws. Here’s more on that:
Activists in Iran have said there is little mood to mourn the death of the country’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan on Sunday.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, announced a five-day public mourning period after the deaths of Raisi, the foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other passengers on the helicopter. However, Iranians who spoke to the Guardian have refused to lament the death of a man who they say was responsible for hundreds of deaths in his four-decade political career.
It was during Raisi’s tenure that protests swept the country after the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested by police under Iran’s harsh hijab laws. More than 19,000 protesters were jailed, and at least 500 were killed – including 60 children – during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. The police continue to violently arrest women for refusing hijab rules.
Hours before Raisi’s death was confirmed by state media, videos circulated on Telegram showing celebratory fireworks, one of them from Amini’s hometown of Saqqez. Iranians from inside and outside the country shared posts reminding the world of Raisi’s brutal presidency and his repression of political dissidents.
White House offers condolences and condemnation on death of Iran's president Raisi
A spokesperson for the White House’s national security council offered condolences on the death of Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, but noted he had channeled funds to armed groups in the Middle East, Reuters reported.
“No question this was a man who had a lot of blood on his hands,” the spokesperson John Kirby said at the White House.
Raisi perished in a helicopter crash alongside Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and six other passengers and crew. Here’s more about his death:
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In an interview with CNN, the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, defended the investigation that led to his request for arrest warrants against top Israeli and Hamas officials.
Khan accused Hamas’s leaders, including the group’s head, Yahya Sinwar, of extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, sexual assault and torture. He also leveled allegations against Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians.
Here’s what Khan had to say about how he reached his conclusion:
Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan says an independent panel of international legal experts reviewed the process for the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and determined “this is not a witch hunt.” pic.twitter.com/ylFGZpxMkW
— The Recount (@therecount) May 20, 2024
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Speaker of US House of Representatives calls ICC warrant request 'baseless and illegitimate'
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, has also come out against international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for arrest warrants against top Israeli and Hamas officials.
“The ICC has no authority over Israel or the United States, and today’s baseless and illegitimate decision should face global condemnation. International bureaucrats cannot be allowed to use lawfare to usurp the authority of democratic nations that maintain the rule of law,” the speaker said in a statement.
Johnson is one of Joe Biden’s top antagonists, and blamed the US president’s policies for leading to the warrants, while also warning that the GOP may move to retaliate against the court. Here’s more:
Israel is fighting a just war for survival, and the ICC is attempting to equate Israeli officials to the evil terrorists who perpetrated the October 7 massacre. It’s clear the ICC’s decision has been advanced due to the Biden Administration’s pressure campaign against Israel and its outlandish State Department investigations. In the absence of leadership from the White House, Congress is reviewing all options, including sanctions, to punish the ICC and ensure its leadership faces consequences if they proceed. If the ICC is allowed to threaten Israeli leaders, ours could be next.
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Key event
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, issued a statement not long after Joe Biden’s, calling the ICC chief prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “shameful”.
In a statement from the state department, Blinken said:
The United States fundamentally rejects the announcement today from the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that he is applying for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, together with warrants for Hamas terrorists.
We reject the Prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans.
Moreover, the United States has been clear since well before the current conflict that that ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter. The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the Prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed.
The full statement is here.
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Trump foreign policy advisers met with Netanyahu today – sources
Three former US foreign policy officials in Donald Trump’s administration met with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other public figures in Israel on Monday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, Reuters reports, citing its work as an exclusive report.
The news agency continues: the delegation was comprised of Robert O’Brien, who served as Trump’s fourth and final national security adviser, as well as the former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates John Rakolta and the former ambassador to Switzerland Ed McMullen, said the person, who requested anonymity as the trip’s itinerary was not public.
In addition to Netanyahu, the delegation met the Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, and several other Israeli officials, the person said.
Among the main goals of the trip was to obtain a better understanding of Israel’s complex domestic political situation, said the person familiar with the visit.
It was a rare case of Trump allies traveling abroad as part of an organized delegation to meet foreign officials.
The source said the group was not acting at the former president’s request and had no message to deliver to Israeli officials. But all serve as informal advisers to Trump, and the former president will likely receive a readout of the meetings, the person added.
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South Africa’s presidency has said it welcomed an announcement by the international criminal court’s prosecutor saying he had requested arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes, Reuters reports.
The Guardian will bring you more details on this asap but a reminder that it was South Africa that, last December, launched a case against Israel at the United Nations’ international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. Israel responded to the allegations “with disgust”, calling South Africa’s case a “blood libel” and urging the ICJ to reject it. The ICJ is separate from the ICC. The ICJ is the UN’s top court that considers legal disputes between nations. The ICC is an intergovernmental court of justice that prosecutes and tries individuals on international crimes, including war crimes.
Last week, South Africa asked the ICJ to order Israel to end its assault on Rafah, halt its military campaign across Gaza, and allow international investigators and journalists into the territory.
• This post was amended on 21 May 2024. An earlier version incorrectly swapped the roles of the ICC and the ICJ.
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Netanyahu condemns ICC prosecutor's request for warrant to arrest him
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has reacted angrily to the news that the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is seeking arrest warrants for him and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, with Khan revealing in the same breath that he was seeking the same for the leaders of Hamas.
Netanyahu said on Monday that Khan’s move was absurd and was meant to target all of Israel.
I reject with disgust the comparison of the prosecutor in the Hague between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas.
With what audacity do you compare Hamas that murdered, burned, butchered, decapitated, raped and kidnapped our brothers and sisters and the IDF soldiers fighting a just war?” he said in a statement, Reuters reports.
Netanyahu also said that the revelation “is exactly what the ‘new antisemitism’ looks like”.
He vowed that Israel was sticking with its stated goal of Israel’s military counteroffensive launched after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October last year and reiterated that Israel “will bring down Hamas and achieve total victory” against the group that controls the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
Netanyahu had said last December that even to subject Israel to any war crimes investigation amounted to “pure antisemitism”.
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The day so far
International criminal court chief prosecutor Karim Khan has caused a political earthquake by requesting arrest warrants for top Israeli and Hamas officials, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar. Israel’s government has denounced the request, calling it “scandalous” as has US president Joe Biden, who called Khan’s decision “outrageous” and said it creates a false equivalence between the two warring parties. It will now be up to the ICC’s judges to determine whether to issue the warrants.
Here’s a rundown of what else has happened today so far:
The UK Foreign Office also objected to Khan’s request, saying it would not help the process of negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza.
US senator Lindsey Graham said he feels deceived by ICC staff, and accused Khan of rushing the decision to seek arrest warrants.
Khan thanked international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who he said acted as a special adviser in his investigation.
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Biden calls ICC prosecutor's request for arrest of Israeli officials 'outrageous'
Joe Biden has objected to the international criminal court chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for arrest warrants against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials as “outrageous”.
“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security,” the US president said in a statement.
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Hamas rejects ICC prosecutor's call for arrest warrants against leaders
In a statement, Hamas denounced the request by the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor for arrest warrants for three of its senior leaders, and called for them to be cancelled.
Reuters reports that the organisation said: “Hamas strongly denounces the attempts of the prosecutor of the international criminal court to equate the victim with the executioner by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders. Hamas … demands the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against leaders of the Palestinian resistance, for violating UN conventions and resolutions.”
UK objects to ICC prosecutor's request for arrest warrants against Israel and Hamas leaders
The UK said it was opposed to international criminal court chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants against the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
In a statement, the foreign office said: “We do not believe that seeking warrants will help get hostages out, get aid in, or deliver a sustainable ceasefire. This remains the UK’s priority.”
The statement added that “as we have said from the outset, we do not think the ICC has jurisdiction in this case. The UK has not yet recognized Palestine as a state, and Israel is not a State Party to the Rome Statute. It would be premature to respond further before the Pre-Trial Chamber has considered the Prosecutor’s application for warrants.”
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Human Rights Watch (HRW) welcomed Karim Khan’s request that the international criminal court issue arrest warrants for Israel and Hamas’s leaders, casting the decision as a long-overdue step towards accountability for abuses by both warring parties.
In a statement, Balkees Jarrah, HRW’s associate international justice director, also urged countries to resist pressure to ignore the ICC’s investigation:
Karim Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants for five people for grave international crimes committed in Israel and Palestine since October 7 in the face of pressure from US lawmakers and others reaffirms the crucial role of the international criminal court. Victims of serious abuses in Israel and Palestine have faced a wall of impunity for decades. This principled first step by the prosecutor opens the door to those responsible for the atrocities committed in recent months to answer for their actions at a fair trial. ICC member countries should stand ready to resolutely protect the ICC’s independence as hostile pressure is likely to increase while the ICC judges consider Khan’s request.
House Republicans weigh legislative response to ICC prosecutor's arrest warrant bid
The Republican leaders of the US House of Representatives are reportedly weighing a legislative response to the decision by the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Punchbowl News has reported that House Republican leadership, which is very supportive of the Israeli government and its war in Gaza, are considering a response, but what the measure looks like and whether they can pull it off before the upcoming Memorial Day holiday remains unclear.
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is expected to respond to the news in a statement on Monday, per CNN. His office has not replied to a request for comment.
Last week, the House passed a Republican-led bill to force Joe Biden to send arms shipments to Israel. The measure came in response to the decision by the US president to pause a transfer of bombs as a warning to Israel that his administration would not supply the country with weapons that could be used to further an invasion of Rafah. Millions of Palestinian civilians displaced by Israel’s bombardment of the territory have sought shelter in the southern Gaza city.
House Republicans are attempting to use unrest on college campuses over the war as a political cudgel, introducing legislation that is likely to further divide Democrats even if it stands no chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate or being signed into law by Biden.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ICC warrants. But the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, previously said in April the president does “not support it”.
“We’ve been really clear about the ICC investigation. We do not support it,” she said. “We don’t believe that they have the jurisdiction. And I’m just going to leave it there for now.”
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Austria chancellor says 'fully' respects ICC independence but signals unease with Israel arrest warrants
Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, signaled wariness with the international criminal court (ICC) chief prosecutor’s decision to request arrest warrants for both the leaders of Hamas and of Israel.
Austria is a signatory of the Rome statute, which created the ICC. Here’s his full statement, on X:
We fully respect the independence of the ICC. The fact however that the leader of the terrorist organisation Hamas whose declared goal is the extinction of the State of Israel is being mentioned at the same time as the democratically elected representatives of that very State is… https://t.co/yj2XAwN7Ik
— Karl Nehammer (@karlnehammer) May 20, 2024
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In his statement announcing his request for arrest warrants against Israel and Hamas’s leaders, the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, singled out Amal Clooney for thanks.
Khan said Clooney, a human rights lawyer known for tackling high-profile cases globally, served as a special adviser in his investigation.
In a statement put out by her Clooney Foundation for Justice, the lawyer elaborated on how she came to be involved in the case:
More than four months ago, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court asked me to assist him with evaluating evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza. I agreed and joined a panel of international legal experts to undertake this task. Together we have engaged in an extensive process of evidence review and legal analysis including at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The Panel and its academic advisers are experts in international law, including international humanitarian law and international criminal law. Two Panel members are appointed as expert ‘Special Advisers’ by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Two Panel members are former judges at criminal tribunals in The Hague.
Despite our diverse personal backgrounds, our legal findings are unanimous. We have unanimously determined that the Court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in Palestine and by Palestinian nationals. We unanimously conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including hostage-taking, murder and crimes of sexual violence. We unanimously conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and extermination.
She also elaborated on why she accepted the court’s invitation to advise on the case:
I served on this Panel because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives. The law that protects civilians in war was developed more than 100 years ago and it applies in every country in the world regardless of the reasons for a conflict. As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child’s life has less value than another’s. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law. So I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine.
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Republican US senator says he feels 'lied to' after ICC prosecutor request warrants against Israeli leaders
The Republican US senator Lindsey Graham accused the international criminal court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, of misleading him about how it would handle its investigation into Israel’s leaders.
In a lengthy post on X, Graham condemned Khan’s request for warrants, and said he had been told by Khan’s staff that they would consult with Israeli authorities before issuing warrants. Here’s more from Graham, who represents South Carolina in the Democratic-controlled Senate:
This outrageous decision is truly a slap in the face to the independent judiciary in Israel, which is renowned for their independence.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 20, 2024
We must not forget as a nation the International Criminal Court threatened to bring action against American forces in Afghanistan – and we are a…
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Israeli ministers condemn ICC arrest warrant call as 'scandalous' and 'tantamount to attack on 7 October victims'
Senior figures in the Israeli government have reacted angrily to the announcement that the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
Israel’s foreign minister Israel Katz said the move was “scandalous” and tantamount to attacking the victims of 7 October. Reuters reports he said he had opened a special war room to counteract the ICC’s move, adding no force in the world would prevent Israel from bringing back its hostages from Gaza and toppling Hamas.
The finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said the decision would be “the last nail in the dismantling of this political and antisemitic court”, adding that “arrest warrants [for Netanyahu and Gallant] are the arrest warrants for all of us”.
The war cabinet member Benny Gantz, who has recently threatened to pull his party from Israel’s coalition government said: “Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation (Hamas) is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy.”
Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians.
The Hamas-led health authority in Gaza has said the death toll from Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip is more than 35,500 Palestinians, while Israel says it has lost 282 soldiers since ground operations began. It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Aid agencies have widely reported food shortages in the territory, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by Israel’s aerial bombardment, being forced to live in makeshift tent shelters with poor sanitation conditions.
The move has also been condemned by the senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, who said the decision “equates the victim with the executioner” and encourages Israel to continue its “war of extermination” in Gaza. Wasel Abu Youssef of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said there was confusion over who was the victim, and that “The Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves. The ICC is required to issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials who are pursuing crimes of genocide in the Gaza Strip.”
Hamas leaders and officials Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh were named as being wanted for crimes of extermination, murder, hostage taking, rape, sexual assault and torture.
Hamas and other groups in Gaza are believed to be still holding about 129 hostages of the approximately 250 seized and abducted during the 7 October surprise attack inside southern Israel. Israeli authorities put the death toll caused by the 7 October attack at about 1,140.
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Chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to apply for arrest warrants against Israel and Hamas’s leadership is historic – but it’s not the end of the story. As the Guardian’s Julian Borger reports, it’s now up to the court’s judges to decide whether to approve the warrants:
The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has announced he will apply to the court for arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, as well the country’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant. At the same time, Khan is seeking warrants for the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, the head of its military wing, Mohammed al-Masri (better known as Mohammed Deif), and the head of its political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh.
The charges he is pursuing against Netanyahu and Gallant concern the conduct of the war in Gaza, include the use of “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”, “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population as a war crime”, extermination as a crime against humanity, and murder as a war crime.
The proposed charges against the Hamas leadership focus on the 7 October attack on southern Israel, which started the current war. They include “extermination as a crime against humanity”, “taking hostages as a war crime”, “rape and other acts of sexual violence as crimes against humanity”, and “torture as a crime against humanity”.
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ICC prosecutor's bid for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas officials complicate US support for Israel
Joe Biden has been a steadfast, if increasingly reluctant, supporter of Israel following Hamas’s 7 October attack, even as the country sees its international standing erode amid concerns about its ongoing invasion of Gaza.
That relationship may grow even more complex now that the international criminal court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has issued arrest warrants for top officials from Hamas and is also seeking warrants for some of Israel’s leaders, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. From the Guardian’s Bethan McKernan, here’s more on what Khan alleged as he called for the warring parties’ leaders to be brought to the Hague for trial:
The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court has said he is seeking arrest warrants for senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, a move that puts the post-second world war rules-based order to the test and presents new challenges for Israel’s western allies.
Karim Khan said his office had applied to the world court’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for the military and political leaders on both sides for crimes committed during Hamas’s 7 October attack and the ensuing war in Gaza.
He named Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in the Gaza Strip, and Mohammed Deif, the commander of its military wing, considered to be the masterminds of the 7 October assault, as well as Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the group’s political bureau, who is based in Qatar, as wanted for crimes of extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, sexual assault and torture.
Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian relief supplies and deliberately targeting civilians.
“The world was shocked on 7 October when people were ripped from their homes, from their bedrooms in different kibbutzim … people have suffered enormously,” Khan told CNN on Monday. “We have a variety of evidence to support the applications we’ve submitted to the judges.”
“These acts demand accountability,” Khan’s office said in a statement.
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House Republicans demand passage of legislation to restart border wall construction and reinstate 'remain in Mexico'
The House Republican leadership, including the speaker, Mike Johnson, was quick to repudiate the Senate’s plan to put the bipartisan Border Act up for consideration, while demanding Democrats hold a vote on their own bill to reinstate hardline immigration policies first enacted under Donald Trump.
“For more than three years now, congressional Democrats have stood by while the Biden administration has opened our borders to criminal drug cartels, terrorists, and untold millions of illegal immigrants. Now, Leader Schumer is trying give his vulnerable members cover by bringing a vote on a bill which has already failed once in the Senate because it would actually codify many of the disastrous Biden open border policies that created this crisis in the first place. Should it reach the House, the bill would be dead on arrival,” Johnson wrote in a joint statement with the majority leader, Steve Scalise, the majority whip, Tom Emmer, and the conference chair, Elise Stefanik.
The leaders said the Senate should instead hold a vote on HR 2, the House Republican proposal that would restart construction of a wall along the southern border, and force asylum seekers to remain in that country while their claims are processed. Most Democrats are against those policies.
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Top Senate Democrat Schumer acknowledges opposition to Border Act, says hopes vote 'will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table'
In a letter to lawmakers, Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic majority leader, appealed to Republicans to reconsider their opposition to the bipartisan Border Act as he moves towards holding a vote on the stalled immigration reform legislation this week.
He also acknowledged that the bill, which is intended to reduce migrant arrivals, may not win unanimous support from Democrats. Some advocates for migrants have decried the legislation as a hardline policy that would undercut the US’s humanitarian obligations.
“We are hopeful this bipartisan proposal will bring serious-minded Republicans back to the table to advance this bipartisan solution for our border,” Schumer said. “I will be honest: I do not expect all Democrats to support this legislation. Many of our colleagues do not support some of the provisions in this legislation, nor do I expect all Republicans to agree to every provision. But that is often how bipartisan legislation must be shaped when dealing with an issue as complex and politically charged as our nation’s immigration laws.”
He also attacked Donald Trump for publicly urging that the legislation be opposed earlier this year, when it was attached to a foreign aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan’s militaries. That measure eventually passed as a standalone bill. Here’s what Schumer had to say:
Back in January, the former president urged congressional Republicans to kill the bipartisan bill, telling the world proudly to ‘blame it on me’. The American people do not have the luxury of playing partisan blame games. They want bipartisan action to secure our border.
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House Republicans vow to kill renewed Senate Democratic effort at immigration reform
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Senate Democrats will try once again to pass a bill to tighten immigration policy, which Donald Trump and his Republican allies killed earlier this year.
It is likely to be a fruitless effort. While the legislation may get through Congress’s Democratic-led upper chamber, the Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and his colleagues announced that the bill would be, once again, “dead on arrival” when it gets over to his side of the Capitol.
What’s the point of the legislative brouhaha that will surely unfold over the next few days? It is a sign of how worried Democrats are about appearing blasé about the large numbers of people entering the United States across its southern border, which polls show is a major worry of voters. The legislation – negotiated by a bipartisan group of lawmakers – would tighten immigration policy in a way intended to keep migrants out. Even if it does not pass, the vote may be an opportunity for vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election in November – think Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, both red states – to show that they are ready to take action on the issue.
The White House this morning reiterated that it supported the legislation, and Joe Biden has gone as far as to urge Trump, whose meddling was seen as instrumental in the bill’s death earlier this year, to work with him on the issue. We’ll see if this renewed push goes any better for Senate Democrats than the last time they tried.
Here’s what else is going on:
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, is expected to return to the witness stand for the final day of testimony in his business fraud trial. Follow our live blog for more.
Julian Assange won a court ruling in the UK that will allow him to again appeal his extradition to the United States on espionage charges.
The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor announced arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the leaders of Hamas. We have a live blog about that, too.
