ARAB and Muslim leaders, gathered at an extraordinary summit in Saudi Arabia, had called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
A late call, but better late than never. Would the ICC rush into action as it did in Ukraine? No. Here is why.
One, the West is notoriously against the ICC, especially when it acts against it and its allies.
Three years ago, when the former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took the initial steps to open investigations against American soldiers for their war crimes in Afghanistan, Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state then, announced on Sept 2, 2020, that the United States would impose sanctions on Bensouda and others.
Never in the history of any nation has a country imposed sanctions on court officials for doing their job. Pompeo quotes the US' justification for the sanctions thus: to protect "Americans from unjust and illegitimate investigation by the ICC".
Now if this is the argument, then ICC investigations against other countries must be "unjust and illegitimate", too. We can only conclude that the West is making sure that the ICC is there to only investigate, try and sentence the rest. Yet, we are taught in the law schools of the West that justice is blind.
Two, much depends on who the chief prosecutor is. The current chief prosecutor, Karim Ahmad Khan, who has been plonked there by Britain, is no Bensouda, his predecessor, who led the office of the prosecutor without fear or favour. But one woman, brave though she was to take on the US, is never a match for a hegemon.
Khan is said to be an able human rights lawyer. Now is the time for him to show that he is a just human rights prosecutor as well. He must act with all speed as he did against Russia. Concerned nations are watching him.
So are human rights lawyers. There can't be a law for some and another for others. The ICC's reputation is in Khan's hands. If he isn't careful, the long-promised walkout by African countries may just happen now. Only this time, others will join them.
Three, the Rome Statute that created the ICC is one of the weakest ever. Lack of prosecutions, especially at the highest level, weak election procedures of judges and chief prosecutors and constant politicisation of the law are a few reasons that makes the ICC a feeble institution. Deliberate? We wouldn't put it past the drafters.
Finally, the United Nations Security Council, which has been granted referral powers by the statute, has thus far chosen never to refer alleged war criminals — quite a few were former heads of state — from the West to the court.
The West should know immunity from prosecutions boosts impunity. Is it possible that there were no war crimes committed in the West's invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq?
Is it possible that there were no war crimes committed by Israel in its 75 years of illegal existence?
The world has enough evidence to prove that just in the last 39 days Israel deliberately massacred more than 12,000 Palestinians, mostly infants, children and women, with the aim of annihilating them.
If incitement to commit genocide is genocide, as the law says, then such Israeli carnage is certainly genocide. The ball is in Khan's court.