There are many vexing aspects to Monday’s announcement by International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan that he is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, defense minister Yoav Gallant and three leaders of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
That he should charge the leaders of a legitimate resistance against military occupation and equate them with the leaders of a criminal regime that is perpetrating genocide is questionable enough – one theme explored in an excellent commentary on the indictments by Justin Podur on his YouTube channel The Anti-Empire Project.
It is particularly bizarre that Khan would charge Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas politburo chief and a civilian political leader who almost certainly had no role whatsoever in planning the 7 October resistance operation.
That can only be aimed at delegitimizing Hamas in line with Western political imperatives. It may well hamper Haniyeh’s constructive role as an interlocutor and mediator in efforts to negotiate a ceasefire, something Hamas has been trying to do in the face of consistent US-backed Israeli rejectionism…..more
