Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

International-UN-NGOs

Three members of UN commission investigating Israel resign amid Trump crackdown

2025-07-15

[IsraelTimes] Resignations, including of former UN rights chief, come as the US imposes sanctions on international anti-Israel investigators

The three members of a United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
commission tasked with investigating Israel quietly resigned earlier this month.

Navi Pillay, Chris Sidoti, and Miloon Kothari, who made up the UN’s Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Paleostinian Territory, submitted their resignation letters to the president of the UN’s Human Rights Council. The letters surfaced on Monday.

Pillay, 83, the commission’s chair, said she was resigning "owing to age, medical issues and the weight of several other commitments" on July 8.

Sidoti resigned a day later, saying Pillay’s retirement was "an appropriate time to re-constitute the commission," and Kothari said the group had reached an "understanding" during the previous week.

The letters were posted on a back-end Human Rights Council website and first publicized by UN Watch, a nonprofit monitoring group.

The commission will continue to exist once it appoints new members. Jurg Lauber, the head of the UN’s Human Rights Council, asked the council’s member states to propose new members by August 31.

The commission released periodic reports on the Israel-Paleostinian conflict that overwhelmingly blamed Israel. The commission’s most recent report was released in May.

Pillay, a South African jurist, was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, during which time she frequently criticized Israel’s actions in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
She chaired the commission of inquiry, which Jewish groups, Israel, the US and other countries have condemned for its alleged bias. It is the council’s first open-ended commission of inquiry, the UNHRC’s highest level of investigation.

The commission overwhelmingly blames Israel for the conflict and accuses the Jewish state of other misdeeds, such as stealing natural resources.

Kothari caused a firestorm of controversy in 2022 when he said that social media was "controlled largely by the Jewish lobby," espousing a common antisemitic trope, and questioned why Israel was allowed in the UN. Pillay defended Kothari’s comments.

Pillay has dismissed antisemitism concerns as a "diversion" and "lies," and called Israeli security concerns "a fiction."

In 2014, over 100 members of Congress signed a letter to Pillay decrying the UNHRC’s bias against Israel under her leadership, saying the council "simply cannot be taken seriously as a human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
organization" while it was probing Israel, but not Hamas
Hamas

..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
The commission’s members resigned as the Trump administration cracks down on international Sherlocks into Israel.

In February, the US slapped wide-ranging sanctions on International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan over his decision to file arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. The court works closely with the UN.

Khan’s US-based assets were frozen and he was barred from entering the country. He lost access to his email, his bank accounts were frozen and his American staffers were told they were at risk of arrest if they were to enter the US, The News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported in May.

Earlier this month, the US imposed sanctions against UN rapporteur for Paleostinian rights La Belle Francesca Albanese, a harsh critic of Israel with a history of antisemitism. Like Kothari, Albanese has inveighed against the "Jewish lobby."

The commission’s opponents celebrated the trio’s departure.

"First, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
made the historic decision to sanction La Belle Francesca Albanese," said Hillel Neuer, the head of UN Watch. "Now the architects of the UN’s anti-Israel inquisition are fleeing the ship. The tide is turning."

Anne Bayefsky, the head of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and the nonprofit Human Rights Voices, said Pillay "has spent almost twenty years championing antisemitic causes from the highest of UN jobs."

Both the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council condemn Israel more than any other country every year.

Link

Home Front: Politix

NYC hopeful Mamdani’s vow to arrest Netanyahu likely oversteps what US mayors can do

2025-07-11

[IsraelTimes] US federal law largely handcuffs local authorities when it comes to cooperating with the ICC. ‘It would be akin to a publicity stunt,’ says expert

If Zohran Mamdani

…Shiite, “Democratic Socialist of America”, red diaper nepo-baby, naturalized Indian-American who couldn’t get into Columbia because he falsely and stupidly claimed to be African-American on his freshman application despite his father being a tenured professor there…

has his way, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will find himself under arrest by New York City’s finest the next time he steps foot in the city.

Mamdani, the Democratic party nominee and presumed frontrunner in the city’s mayoral race, has repeatedly said he would arrest the Israeli premier should Netanyahu visit while he is running city hall, citing an International Criminal Court warrant on war crimes charges.

"As mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. This is a city that — our values are in line with international law. It’s time that our actions are also," Mamdani said in a December interview with the Zeteo outlet.

But as with some of Mamdani’s other campaign promises, the candidate may be overreaching on what powers he will have as mayor — even one running the largest city in the United States.

"The short answer is that this would almost certainly not happen," said Prof. David Bosco of Indiana University, Bloomington, a scholar of international law who wrote a 2014 book about the ICC.

The Hague-based court, formed in 2002 to prosecute crimes against humanity, war crimes and charges of genocide, issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant last year on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes in a bombshell accusation against Israel’s leadership.

More than 120 countries are members of the court, curtailing travel for Netanyahu and Gallant to countries that have promised not to honor the warrants or are not signatories to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, such as Israel or the US, where Netanyahu visited this week.

The court does not have the power to enforce arrests itself and relies on member states to carry out arrests so defendants can stand trial in the Hague.

Mamdani has acknowledged that the US is not a party to the ICC, without explaining how he would still carry out an arrest.

Addressing the ICC’s lack of jurisdiction in the US during a panel at a synagogue last month, Mamdani said, "I believe our city should be in compliance with international law."

Rebecca Hamilton, a professor of international law at American University and a former lawyer with the ICC, said that, in theory, countries that are not party to the court could still carry out arrests based on ICC warrants.

"The court can ask any non-state party for help with an arrest warrant, and that state can decide whether or not to do so," Hamilton said. "It is just that only states that have joined the Rome Statute are under a legal obligation to execute an ICC warrant."

It is up to individual countries to decide if local officials have the authority to execute an international warrant, Hamilton added.
)
US federal law prohibits municipal governments from cooperating with the court, though. The American Service-Members’ Protection Act, passed in 2002, bars local authorities from cooperating with the court or providing the ICC support.

"No agency or entity of any State or local government, including any court, may cooperate with the International Criminal Court," the law says.

A separate federal law prohibits imprisonment, intimidation, harassment, threats and obstruction against foreign officials, including heads of state. Imprisonment of a foreign official can result in a fine and up to three years in prison.

The Trump administration is also no fan of the ICC and sanctioned the court in February to penalize it for the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

Netanyahu is a frequent visitor to New York City, traveling there nearly every September to attend the United Nations
...the Oyster Bay money pit...
General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in Manhattan. Even though Netanyahu will be in the city, matters like international warrants remain the purview of the federal government.

"Diplomatic immunity and the conduct of foreign relations are federal matters and the federal government is given wide discretion by the courts to manage foreign policy and international legal relations," Bosco said, adding that the Trump administration and Congress have both opposed the ICC warrants.

Even if Mamdani wanted to put Netanyahu in cuffs for jaywalking, US law and international custom grant diplomatic immunity to members of foreign diplomatic missions, including visiting dignitaries, preventing them from being arrested or prosecuted for ordinary crimes like traffic violations.

Exceptions are only made in extreme cases, such as threats to public safety or ~~violent~~ mostly peaceful felonies, under the aegis of the US State Department, which views its authority to expel foreign diplomats as "an extreme diplomatic tool," only used in very rare circumstances.

"Even if New York authorities were somehow to attempt an arrest, it would be akin to a publicity stunt that would be immediately opposed and reversed," with backing from federal courts, Bosco said.

A New York City mayor does not have the executive power to make arrests, but does rely on the NYPD.

If Mamdani ordered Netanyahu arrested, the order would go to the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, said Mitch Silber, the former NYPD director of intelligence analysis and the head of the Community Security Initiative, a Jewish community security group.

The deputy commissioner would review the order’s legality and advise the police commissioner on whether the arrest could be carried out. If the arrest was not deemed legal, the NYPD wouldn’t take action, said Silber, who added that he is not familiar with the relevant federal laws and could not weigh in on the ICC’s jurisdiction in New York.

"The NYPD can’t take illegal acts, even if the mayor wants them to," Silber said. "If it’s an act that they’re prohibited from doing by federal law, then they’re not going to do it because it’s going to get overturned immediately."

Netanyahu would also need to be extradited to the Hague to stand trial, which would require the involvement of federal authorities, like the Department of Justice or the US Marshals, Silber said.

The Department of Justice declined to comment on Mamdani’s vow to arrest Netanyahu.

Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

While countries are technically obligated by the Rome Statute, the ICC has no enforceable way to compel states not to simply ignore its arrest warrants. In April, Hungary chose not to arrest Netanyahu when he visited, despite Hungary being a member of the court at the time. Hungary later withdrew from the ICC.

During his visit to Washington, DC, this week, Netanyahu said he still plans to visit New York and that he was "not concerned" about Mamdani’s pledge to arrest him if elected.

"There’s enough craziness in the world, but I guess it never ends," Netanyahu said. "It’s silly in many ways because it’s just not serious."

"I’ll get him out," US President Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
said as Netanyahu was speaking.

Trump has been vocally opposed to Mamdani, calling him a "Communist lunatic" and threatening to arrest Mamdani if he opposes federal immigration enforcement in New York City.

Mamdani, a harsh critic of Israel who has identified as anti-Zionist, is the heavy favorite to win November’s general election for mayor. He swept to victory in the Democratic primary last month with a campaign centered on addressing affordability in the city, promising to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund cheaper housing and groceries while making buses and kindergartens free.

Critics say he lacks the authority to see many of his ideas to fruition on his own without the support of the New York State legislature and Governor Kathy Hochul.

A poll released last month found that Mamdani’s pledge to arrest Netanyahu was not popular with New Yorkers. According to the survey, 45% of New Yorkers oppose acting on the ICC warrant, while 36% support it. The remainder were undecided or did not have an opinion.

On the other hand, local or federal authorities in New York could potentially take action against the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, though sanctions currently prevent him from entering the country.

Khan allegedly sexually abused one of his subordinates repeatedly, including in a Manhattan hotel in 2023, according to a May report in the Wall Street Journal. Khan canceled an investigative trip to Israel and Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
and rushed out the warrants shortly after the allegations surfaced, the report said.

The report suggested Khan issued the warrants to build support for himself with anti-Israel ICC member states, and forestall his accuser, who strongly supported the warrants.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment on whether Khan was being investigated. Khan has denied the accusations.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

US sanctions UN rights expert for Palestinian territories

2025-07-10

[GEO.TV] US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
on Wednesday announced Washington was sanctioning the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur for the Paleostinian Territories Francesca Albanese.

"Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (International Criminal Court) action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives," posted Rubio on social media, labeling the UN expert's strident criticism of the United States as "political and economic warfare."

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Rape as weapon of war: Released report lays groundwork for prosecuting Oct 7. sexual violence

2025-07-09

[IsraelTimes] Dinah Project findings confirm Hamas systematically weaponized sexual assault as part of a broader campaign to terrorize, humiliate and dehumanize Israelis

A new report providing the first legal framework to prosecute Hamas terrorists for the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war during the October 7, 2023, massacre was presented Tuesday to First Lady Michal Herzog at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

The report by the Dinah Project confirms that Hamas systematically used rape and sexual violence during the massacre as part of a broader campaign of terror, collective humiliation, and dehumanization of Israeli society.

Titled, “A Quest for Justice: October 7 and Beyond,” it is the first report to offer a legal roadmap based on international law for identifying and pursuing justice for the use of sexual violence as a weapon of warfare, which constitutes a crime against humanity.

Tuesday’s gathering of primarily women included former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky, 31, who has publicly spoken out about being sexually assaulted by her captors in Gaza.

Gritzewsky recounted her abduction on October 7 from her home on Kibbutz Nir Oz, where she lived with her partner, Matan Zangauker, who was also kidnapped and remains in captivity.

Details at the link.

The report consolidated data on sexual violence on October 7 and grouped it methodologically based on testimony from first-hand survivors, eyewitnesses, first responders, workers at the Shura military base, which served as a morgue, healthcare workers, and therapists, as well as captured photos and video footage.

The authors acknowledged that it is not the first report to collate data on the use of sexual violence on October 7. Such research has already been conducted by others, including by the Office of the Under Secretary General of the UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten, in March 2024.

Based on existing doctrine in international and Israeli law, the authors call for the promotion of a key legal principle: the imposition of collective criminal responsibility on all participants in the attack — even if they did not personally commit rape — on the grounds that they knew, should have known, or took part in enabling sexual violence during the attack.

“Our goal is to demonstrate how perpetrators and commanders can be prosecuted even without direct testimony against each individual,” said Halperin-Kaddari.

The next steps they intend to pursue include calling on the Israeli government and judiciary to apply the doctrine of collective responsibility in order to prosecute terrorists for sexual crimes as crimes against humanity and urging the UN Secretary General to add Hamas to the blacklist of organizations that use sexual violence as a weapon of war, in accordance with past Security Council resolutions.

The authors of the report then want to establish a legal process and framework that can be used internationally for prosecuting sexual crimes in war before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague and UN human rights bodies.

Finally, they are seeking to use their research to develop a new legal protocol for addressing sexual violence in armed conflict, including rules for evidence collection, the use of indirect evidence, and recognition of the community-wide harm caused by such acts.

Several speakers referred to the feeling of “betrayal” they felt from the world, especially from other women, who they expected to show empathy and solidarity. The widespread denial of the sexual crimes committed against Israeli women and men on and since October 7 was one of the other motivations for producing the report.

Link

Good Morning

2025-07-09

South Carolina GOP leaders tell Gov Gavin
Newsom to 'sell Crazy California somewhere else'

Wednesday 07/09/2025

Gunmen Hijack 33 Tons of Gold, Silver Concentrate in Truck on Mexican Highway

Ziegfeld Girl with bubble.

Africa North Algeria and Mauritania have signed a defense agreement		International-UN-NGOs International Criminal Court (ICC) seeks arrest of two Taliban leaders over alleged persecution of women
Israel-Palestine-Jordan Israel Attacks in Gaza Kill 78 More Palestinians		Syria-Lebanon-Iran UN says almost 500,000 Afghans have left Iran in just a month
Israel-Palestine-Jordan Al-Qassam Brigades announce operation in Beit Hanoun		Home Front: WoT Ten charged in connection with shooting at ICE facility in Texas, wounding an officer

Energy-sucking AI data centers
can look here for power instead

Link

International-UN-NGOs

International Criminal Court (ICC) seeks arrest of two Taliban leaders over alleged persecution of women

2025-07-09

[X]

BREAKING: International Criminal Court (ICC) seeks arrest of two Taliban leaders over alleged persecution of women https://t.co/gEi62vkpMa pic.twitter.com/MC5p4H5hEj
— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) July 8, 2025

Link

International-UN-NGOs

International Criminal Court hit with ‘sophisticated’ cyberattack

2025-07-01

Schadenfreude is not an admirable sentiment, but oh! it does feel gooood. Anyway, it’s probably Russia — Israel has better things to do.

[IsraelTimes] The court, which does not specify a suspected motive, has several high-profile cases on the docket, including issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and ex-defense minister Gallant

The International Criminal Court is undertaking damage control after it was hit by a "new, sophisticated, and targeted" cyberattack, the global tribunal announced Monday.

The ICC said the latest incident, which took place last week, was contained, but did not elaborate further on the impact or possible motive.

"A Court-wide impact analysis is being carried out, and steps are already being taken to mitigate any effects of the incident," the court said in a statement.

"All necessary measures have been taken to ensure the business continuity," court front man Fadi El Abdallah told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.

The ICC has a number of high-profile investigations and preliminary inquiries underway in nations around the world, and issued arrest warrants in November for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, including "starvation as a method of war."

Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the court, which is based in the Hague. It also insists that its fighting in Gaza has accorded with international law, citing measures it has taken to avoid civilian casualties and to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid

.

US President Donald Trump
...His ancestors didn't own any slaves...
slapped sanctions on the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, in February and earlier this month also sanctioned four judges at the court over the warrants and proceedings against the US. In May, Israel asked the ICC to withdraw the warrants as it reviews challenges to its jurisdiction.

The cyberattack happened in the same week that The Hague hosted a summit of 32 NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
leaders at a conference center near the court, with tight security, including measures to guard against such attacks.

The court declined to say whether any confidential information had been compromised.

The ICC is also investigating allegations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine and has issued a war crimes arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

In addition, former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is in ICC detention awaiting possible trial for alleged murders carried out during his so-called "war on drugs."

The court has in the past been the target of espionage. In 2022, a Dutch intelligence agency said it had foiled a plot by a Russian spy using a false Brazilian identity to work as an intern at the court.

The court was also hit by a cyberattack in 2023. The court is still feeling the effects of that attack, with WiFi still not completely restored to its purpose-built headquarters.

Link

Europe

Germany seeks increased Israeli partnership on cyber-defense, plans ‘Cyber Dome’

2025-06-30

Will that be before or after Chancellor Mertz’s government arrests Bibi to make the International Criminal Court happy?

[IsraelTimes] Visiting interior minister’s 5-point plan to boost ties said to include greater cooperation with Mossad, joint research center; ‘Military defense alone is not sufficient,’ he says

They need energy independence from Russia without demanding that France carry their burden, and trade independence from China, right? Are they doing anything in those directions?

Germany is aiming to establish a joint German-Israeli cyber research center and deepen collaboration between the two countries’ intelligence and security agencies, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Sunday.

Germany is among Israel’s closest allies in Europe, and Berlin has increasingly looked to draw upon Israel’s defense expertise as it boosts its military capabilities and contributions to NATO in the face of perceived growing threats from Russia and China.

“Military defense alone is not sufficient for this turning point in security. A significant upgrade in civil defense is also essential to strengthen our overall defensive capabilities,” Dobrindt said during a visit to Israel, as reported by Germany’s Bild newspaper.

Dobrindt, who was appointed by new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last month, arrived in Israel on Saturday. On Sunday, Dobrindt visited the site of an Iranian missile strike in Bat Yam where nine people, including three children, were killed and hundreds wounded overnight on June 14-15.

“We must deepen our support for Israel,” said Dobrindt, standing amid the rubble with Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, in the first visit by a senior foreign official since the Israel-Iran war ended.

Bild said Germany’s decision to expand cyber cooperation with Israel was due at least in part to the role Israeli cyber capabilities played in thwarting larger Iranian attacks during the 12-day war that ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on Tuesday.

According to the Bild report, Dobrindt has outlined a five-point plan aimed at establishing what he called a “Cyber Dome” for Germany, as part of its cyber-defense strategy.

The plan reportedly calls for establishing a joint German-Israel cyber research center; strengthening cooperation on cyber defense; increasing cooperation between Mossad and its German counterpart, the BND; expanding Germany’s anti-drone defenses; and developing a system of civil shelters and emergency warnings like that used in Israel during the Iran war.

Earlier on Sunday, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder also called for the acquisition of 2,000 interceptor missiles to equip Germany with an “Iron Dome” system similar to Israel’s short-range missile defense technology.

Iran launched over 500 ballistic missiles and around 1,100 drones at Israel in retaliation for Israeli strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program, missile production and leadership. The Iranian attacks killed 28 people and wounded over 3,000 in Israel, according to health officials and hospitals.

Israel said its operation in Iran was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from realizing its avowed goal to destroy the Jewish state.

While Iran has denied seeking nuclear weapons, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities. Israel said Iran had recently taken steps toward weaponization.

Speaking in Bat Yam, Dobrindt said Israel has “our support in destroying Iran’s nuclear program” and that “if Iran had the atom bomb, it would use it against Israel,” according to Bild.

So good of Germany to say so now.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Trump administration slaps sanctions on four ICC judges over Israel and US cases

2025-06-06

[IsraelTimes] Measures target pair of judges on panel that authorized arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant; two others okayed probe into alleged war crimes by US troops in Afghanistan

The Trump administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court who have been involved in proceedings against Israel and the United States.

The four judges will be barred from entering the US and their assets in the country will be seized, measures typically used against officials from countries hostile to America.

"The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our illusory sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other US ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
said in a statement.

"I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel," Rubio said.

The court swiftly hit back, saying in a statement: "These measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on the other hand hailed the sanctions, thanking the Trump administration for imposing them.

"Thank you President Trump and Secretary of State Rubio for imposing sanctions against the politicized judges of the ICC. You have justly stood up for the right of Israel, The United States and all democracies to defend themselves against savage terror," said a statement from the premier’s office.

Two of the judges, Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin
...Benin, a French-speaking West African nation, that they put where Dahomey used to be. It is a birthplace of voodoo and zombies. In Abomey, Dahomey's former capital, the Historical Museum occupies two royal palaces with bas-reliefs recounting the kingdom’s past and a throne mounted on human skulls. To the north, Pendjari National Park offers safaris with elephants, hippos and lions and tigers and bears, oh my!...
, took part in proceedings that led the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan to issue in November arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Khan claimed to find "reasonable grounds" of criminal responsibility by the pair for actions that include the war crime of starvation as a method of war in Israel’s massive offensive in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
following Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which some 1,200 were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Israel has strongly rejected the charges.

Gansou also served on the bench that originally approved the investigation into alleged war crimes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in 2021.

Before being elected ICC judge in 2023, Hohler worked in the prosecutor’s office at the court, leading Israel to object to her participation in the proceedings involving Israeli officials. Hohler said in a statement last year that she had never worked on the investigation that began in 2021 during her eight years as a prosecutor.

The two other judges sanctioned by the US, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru and Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, were part of the court proceedings that led to the authorization of an investigation into allegations that US forces committed war crimes during the war in Afghanistan. They both have also worked on ICC cases involving Israel.

In February, Khan was placed on Washington’s list of "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons," barring him from doing business with Americans and placing restrictions on his entry into the US Khan stepped aside last month pending an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct.

Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court. The Paleostinian Authority, on the other hand, is a Rome Statute signatory, in what the court has deemed is sufficient for hearing cases on alleged crimes that took place in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Moreover, almost all Western allies of the United States as well as Japan and South Korea, the vast majority of Latin America and much of Africa are parties to the statute and in theory are required to arrest suspects when they land on their soil.

Trump, in his first term, imposed sanctions on the then-ICC chief prosecutor over the Afghanistan investigation.

After Trump’s defeat in 2020, then-US president Joe The Big Guy Biden
...46th president of the U.S. This Is A Man That Does Not Seem Demented...
took a more conciliatory approach to the court with case-by-case cooperation.

Rubio’s predecessor Antony Blinken

...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
rescinded the sanctions and, while critical of its stance on Israel, worked with the court in its investigation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

ICC judges in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
over the alleged mass abduction of Ukrainian children during the war.

Both Putin and Netanyahu have voiced defiance over the ICC pressure but have also looked to minimize time in countries that are party to the court.

The ICC arrest warrants have been especially sensitive in Britannia, a close US ally whose Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a former human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
lawyer.

Downing Street has said that Britannia will fulfill its "legal obligations" without explicitly saying if Netanyahu would be arrested if he visits.

Hungary, led by Trump ally Viktor Orban, has parted ways with the rest of the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
by moving to exit the court.

Orban spurned the court by welcoming Netanyahu to visit in April.

Set up in 2002, the ICC seeks to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.

Israel and the US have argued that they have their own independent judiciaries that eliminate the need for an international court of last resort.

Link

Europe

There Are ‘No Decisions To Be Made’: Merz' Chief Of Staff Frei Does Not Rule Out Netanyahu's Arrest In Germany (translated)

2025-06-02

No decisions to be made by Israel as well: no visits to Germany so long as this government is in office.

[ApolloNews] Chief of Staff Thorsten Frei has not ruled out the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he sets foot on German soil. He stated that they respect "the independence of the International Criminal Court."

The topic of Israel is causing conflict within the CDU/CSU: Following the anti-Israel speeches by Friedrich Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul this week, there has been internal party criticism of the statements made by the Chancellor and Foreign Minister. A dispute that even Thorsten Frei, a close confidant of Merz and well-connected, apparently cannot resolve: In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the CDU's head of the Chancellery also failed to take a clear position on the question of the CDU's position on Israel and its war against the terrorist group Hamas.

The 51-year-old repeatedly evaded the question of whether Germany would defy the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and whether he would still be welcome in Germany. Frei initially only said: "The elected Prime Minister of Israel is, of course, always a dialogue partner of the German Federal Government" – no clear commitment. When the journalist asked him whether this would not answer the question, Frei simply replied with a postponement: "There is currently no visit to Israel planned; nor vice versa. Therefore, no decisions need to be made," Frei said.

The decision is certainly relevant now – especially because the coalition partner SPD is increasingly using harsher language against Israel and Merz, with his accusation that the Israeli army is breaking international law in the Gaza Strip, has at least caused decades of support for Israel and raison d'état to crumble ( Apollo News reported), if not even a historic low point in German-Israeli relations.

Frei also evades the commitment to Israel in the following questions: "In principle, Germany still respects the independence of the International Criminal Court and its procedural processes, as well as those of all other international courts," is the CDU politician's next response to the question of whether relations with Israel would ultimately take precedence over international law. Frei's answer, decoded, is: We will listen to the International Criminal Court's ruling, but since Netanyahu isn't visiting Germany, we don't even have to ask ourselves whether he will actually be arrested. That's not a convincing expression of solidarity.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

ICC prosecutor was readying warrants for Smotrich, Ben Gvir before going on leave — WSJ

2025-05-28

But now he’s gone, and they… aren’t. A theme throughout Jewish history.

[IsraelTimes] ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan was readying to request arrest warrants for Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir before going on leave amid a sexual misconduct probe, the Wall Street Journal reports.

According the US newspaper, which cites current and former International Criminal Court officials, Khan was building a case against Smotrich and Ben Gvir over their roles in promoting Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Other unidentified officials besides Ben Gvir and Smotrich are also reportedly being investigated by the ICC for working to expand settlements.

It is unclear whether Khan’s deputies will move forward with the case against the two far-right ministers, with the report noting such a move could bring further US sanctions and would entail deep political risks at a time when the court has no top prosecutor in place.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Syrian collective files complaint against Sharaa at International Criminal Court

2025-05-25

A waste of time, but at least it gets the information into the historical record.

[Rudaw] A French-Syrian group has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing Syria’s interim president of being responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, according to a media report.

The Franco-Alawite Collective, which is composed of Alawites, Druze, Kurds, Christians, and Sunnis, filed the complaint against interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, La Belle Franceinfo reported on Friday. They accuse him of orchestrating massacres in March and May that left between 1,700 and 2,000 people dead.

In March, violence erupted

like lava from a volcano in Alawite-majority areas after gangs, many loyal to ousted president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Horror of Homs...
, launched attacks on forces allied with the government, prompting Damascus to respond with force. Around 1,500 people, mainly Alawite civilians, were killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which said most of the casualties were caused by government or government-affiliated forces. Amnesty International said the mass killings must be investigated as a "war crime."

In April and May, deadly festivities broke out between government forces and Druze fighters.

The collective claims the deaths qualify as genocide or crimes against humanity and say they have video evidence to support their accusations.

"This complaint is in the name of the Syrian people," said Lina Peron, a member of the collective’s legal committee, La Belle Franceinfo reported.

The complaint was submitted to the ICC prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether to open a formal investigation.

Facing international criticism, Sharaa, who led the Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else

...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
(HTS) militia that spearheaded the offensive to topple dictator Bashir al-Assad, ordered an investigation into violence against minorities.

Sharaa’s interim government has faced repeated criticism for its treatment of minority groups, with many Syrians and foreign powers fearing it will impose strict religious rule, posing a threat to Kurds, Druze, Christians, and Alawites. The violence heightened concerns over the future of these populations.

Link

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