On Monday, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, announced he would be filing applications for arrest warrants for both the leaders of Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, and the leaders of Israel, a democratic nation defending itself against that very same terrorist group. The short statement he wrote to justify the decision was stunning in its failures. It was wrong on the merits, the process, the facts, and the law.
First, the merits. The ICC accused Israel of violating several specific provisions of the Rome Statute but neglected to quote the full statutory language, likely because in each and every instance, the law as written gives lie to his claims.
For example, in his first charge, Khan noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are accused of the “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare…
