My name is Khan. I am from the ICC and you are under arrest by Martin Jay!
(2024-05-29 at 20:49:13 )

My name is Khan. I am from the ICC and you are under arrest by Martin Jay!

Karim Khan is the man who could shatter in one blow the credibility of these institutions and put the United States of America even farther behind in its declining power, struggling to adapt to the multipolar world.

There has been nothing like it before.

The arrest warrants for both Hamas leaders and Benjamin Netanyahu by the ICC create a new precedent for the so-called rules-based order of the West and its elites.

With now countries like Norway, Ireland and Spain already declaring that Palestine could be recognised as a state, with at least 100 Global South countries ready to back such a bold move, the pressure on United States President Joe Biden is mounting, as he manages to back himself and his administration into a corner with America increasingly isolated now on the world stage.

What happens when the Global South wakes up and realises that these international courts in the Hague are merely tools for any United States administration to arrest and detain any leaders around the world who they can not assassinate or replace easily and that the "rules-based order" is just an excuse for the United States and United Kingdom to break their own rules around the world when it suits them to support United States hegemony?

Karim Khan is the man who could shatter in one blow the credibility of these institutions and put the United States of America even farther behind in its declining power, struggling to adapt to the multipolar world.

Mr. Khan is the chief ICC prosecutor who issues the warrants which are subject to approval by the ICCs judges. If they are issued, they would immediately become a much more significant potential constraint on Israels leadership than a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a case brought by South Africa, which ordered Israel to suspend its military campaign in Rafah.

If granted, it could be a game changer which could set the entire Gaza war and its endeavour to have its own state on a new path, crushing once and for all any hegemony the United States thinks it still wields in the Middle East.

Mr. Khans announcement accused Binyamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders, of crimes against humanity. It was the first time that a sitting western-backed leader had been targeted by the court and it prompted international outrage.

It is important to note that the ICC is not a court linked to the United Nations but formed by a treaty signed in Rome in 2002 and was largely backed by poor countries whose regimes were afraid of being victims of coup d etats from neighbouring countries. Broadly speaking, the difference between the ICC and the ICJ is that the former issues arrest warrants for dictators with pressure on the member states themselves to enact them. Neither Israel nor the United States are members.

Khan recently gave an exclusive interview to the London Times where he revealed how much he is hated by western leaders, in particular from his own country, like Rishi Sunak, who called the decision "deeply unhelpful", and President Biden, who called it "outrageous".

"Our job is not to make friends," he says. "It is to do our job whether we are applauded or condemned. We have to underline the equal worth of every child, every woman, every civilian in a world that is increasingly polarised and if we do not do that, what is the point of us?"

The two main points which come from the interview are his belief in an international rules-based system which is not dominated by the United States and how collective punishment in war is entirely unacceptable.

He is critical of Israel and its mass murders in Gaza and Rafah, saying that Israel should learn the lessons of the United Kingdoms struggle in Northern Ireland where the British army was reluctant to indiscriminately bomb huge areas where it was known IRA terrorists were living.

"There were attempts to kill Margaret Thatcher, Airey Neave was blown up, Lord Mountbatten was blown up, there was the Enniskillen attack, we had kneecappings .. But the British did not decide to say, "Well, on the Falls Road [the heart of Catholic Belfast] there undoubtedly may be some IRA members and Republican sympathisers, so therefore let us drop a 2,000lb bomb on the Falls Road." You can not do that.

"Law must have some purpose, that is what separates states that respect the law from criminal groups and terrorists. And that is all I have been trying to do, apply law based on facts, and that is what we must do whatever condemnation we get."

The simple reality of the arrest warrants though is that they are largely symbolic although they serve to isolate the United States even more, lending themselves to give more gravitas to the Palestinian state.

Probably Netanyahu will not travel to any of the 124 member countries of the ICC which puts further pressure on him to battle his corruption charges at home, unless of course he decides at a certain point to flee Israel for a safe haven - which would probably be a Middle Eastern country, Morocco or the United States (the latter depending on who is in the Oval office).

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