The request for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sparked an outcry in the world’s political class, from France to the United States. A decision in which George Clooney’s wife had a certain influence.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan requested on Monday May 20, 2024 the issuance of arrest warrants targeting three Hamas leaders, the Israeli Minister of Defense, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, himself , for acts that he describes as war crimes or crimes against humanity. In exact terms, the ICC refers to crimes such as “deliberate starvation of civilians”, “intentional homicide” and “extermination and/or murder”. A decision supported by France.
Indeed, in a communicated, the Quai d’Orsay indicates that it has been warning “for many months about the imperative of strict respect for international humanitarian law and in particular about the unacceptable nature of civilian losses in the Gaza Strip and insufficient humanitarian access”. In this sense, “France supports the International Criminal Court, its independence, and the fight against impunity in all situations. France is committed to the search for a lasting political solution in the region, the only one that allows restore a horizon of peace and put an end to the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike” we can read in this official declaration.
A “historic step” for Amal Clooney
To make such a decision, the International Criminal Court also relied on the advice of a panel of experts, including the lawyer of Lebanese origin and wife of actor George Clooney, Amal Clooney. The latter indicates having been contacted “more than four months ago” by the ICC prosecutor to join the group of experts responsible for examining “evidence of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity” in the gang. from Gaza, in a message on the website of the Clooney foundation for justice.
The human rights activist says, on behalf of the group: “We have unanimously established that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes and against humanity, in particular the use of famine as a weapon of war, assassination, persecution and extermination. She considers the arrest warrants requested by the ICC as a “historic step” to “provide justice for the victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine”.
Marion Maréchal evokes “electoral calculations”
However, this decision by the ICC welcomed by France and Amal Clooney did not enchant the French political class. She even had the gift of bringing together two political families who were more accustomed to turning their backs on each other in recent weeks, particularly in view of the European elections on June 9, Les Républicains and Reconquête.
MP Meyer Habib, elected from the eighth constituency of French people established outside France since 2013 and related to LR, criticized the decision of the International Criminal Court and the arrest warrant targeting the Israeli Prime Minister: “I am disgusted. The position of France is a scandalous betrayal. He speaks of “entire families being burned” in Israel.
Marion Maréchal on the decision of the ICC prosecutor to request an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes: There is no genocide in Gaza, otherwise there would be no evacuations or the delivery of humanitarian materials, in #TheGrandInterview pic.twitter.com/YVidMXsssV
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An anger shared this Tuesday morning by the head of the Reconquest to the Europeans list, Marion Maréchal at the microphone of CNews: “Draw the parallel between the Israeli leaders and Hamas which is an Islamist terrorist organization which has ramifications everywhere and which threatens France through terrorist acts makes no sense. I completely refute what is insinuated through these prosecutions (those of the ICC, editor’s note), namely that there would be a genocide in Gaza. I do not believe that at all. France’s position does not surprise Marion Maréchal, “I think that behind this there are electoral calculations among Europeans. Surely they want to please a part of the population, in particular let’s say it, Muslims, who today “Today sees through the subject of Gaza, one of the drivers of voting and mobilization.”
At the same time, US President Joe Biden said he was “outraged” at the idea of a mandate against Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel’s main ally, Biden was quick to react after the ICC’s request: “I will be clear: whatever the prosecutor insinuates, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas, it There is none. What is happening is not a genocide, we reject this term, he insisted.