Amal Clooney champions the ICC's move to issue arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas figures.
A panel assembled by International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan recently reviewed the proof and legal rationale supporting his request for arrest warrants against three Hamas leaders and two Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On Monday, they published a thorough legal report, stating that there are "reasonable grounds to believe" those named in the warrants have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Before making the announcement, Clooney faced online criticism for not addressing Israel's ongoing blockade of Gaza. In a statement on her Clooney Foundation for Justice website, she explained her role in working with Khan.
"Over four months ago, the ICC prosecutor asked me to aid him in examining evidence of suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel and Gaza. I obliged and joined a team of international legal experts to take on this task," her statement read.
She emphasized that despite their different backgrounds, their findings were consistent. "I joined this panel because I believe in the rule of law and the critical necessity to safeguard civilian lives," Clooney continued. "Laws for protecting civilians in war have been in place for more than a century, and they apply in every country regardless of the reasons for a conflict."
The panel, consisting of highly regarded legal experts, including Theodor Meron, a former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and Lord Justice Fulford, a former ICC judge, unanimously concluded that the court held jurisdiction over offenses committed in Palestine and by Palestinians.
In Clooney's statement, it was revealed that the panel also reached consensus in finding that Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, which included hostage-taking, murder, and sexual violence offenses.
The ICC panel deemed there were sufficient grounds to suspect that Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had committed these offenses, too, such as starvation as a tactic in war, murder, persecution, and extermination.
The ICC judges will now deliberate over Khan's application for the arrest warrants.
Hamas and Israeli politicians branded these warrants as unjust, with Netanyahu claiming it promoted a skewed and false equivalence between the leaders of Israel and the Hamas group.
This marks the first time the ICC has pursued legal action against a long-time ally of the United States. Neither Israel nor the US are part of the ICC. However, according to the ICC's claim, it has jurisdiction over Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, following Palestinian leaders endorsing the court's founding principles in 2015.
The US government strongly disputed the ICC's intervention, with President Joe Biden stating how there is "no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas."
Clooney, a barrier at Doughty Street Chambers in London and an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, is the spouse of actor George Clooney. Alongside her husband, she established the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which provides free legal assistance to victims of misuses of authority, as stated on the website.
Her body of work includes advocating for Yazidi victims of genocide "in the three genocide cases against ISIS members worldwide." Additionally, she represented genocide victims in Sudan's Darfur region and helped secure freedom for political prisoners globally, including journalists and dissidents.
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The international community is closely watching the developments in the Middle East following the ICC's announcement of arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas figures.
The issuance of these warrants has sparked controversy on the world stage, with some countries supporting the ICC's actions and others criticizing it as an unwarranted intervention.
Source: edition.cnn.com
