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Thursday, March 4, 2021

The ICC Court Attacking Israel For War Crimes

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

 The International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Wednesday that it would investigate Israel for war crimes.  “This court, that was established to prevent the repetition of the Nazi horrific crimes committed against the Jewish people, is now turning its guns against the one and only state of the Jewish people. It’s targeting Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. But of course it turns a blind eye to Iran, Syria and the other dictatorships that are committing real war crimes left and right,” Netanyahu said.

The IDF (Israel Defense Forces ) has a code of ethics.  High on the list is Universal moral values based on the value and dignity of human life. ‬Human Dignity.  The IDF and its soldiers are obligated to preserve human dignity. All humans are to be valued, regardless of race, creed, nationality, gender, status or role.  The IDF serviceman will, above all, preserve human life, in the recognition of its supreme value and will place himself or others at risk solely to the extent required to carry out his mission.

The sanctity of life in the eyes of the IDF servicemen will find expression in all of their actions, in deliberate and meticulous planning, in safe and intelligent training and in proper execution of their mission. In evaluating the risk to self and others, they will use the appropriate standards and will exercise constant care to limit injury to life to the extent required to accomplish the mission. The IDF serviceman will be ready to place his own life at risk when confronting the enemy or to save human life to the extent required, but he will preserve his own life and that of others in all other military situations.

The IDF serviceman will take into account, in every practical context, not only the proper concern for human life, but also the influence his actions may have on the physical well-being and spiritual integrity and dignity of others.  The IDF serviceman will treat enemy troops and civilians in areas controlled by the IDF in accordance with the letter and spirit of the laws of war and will not exceed the limits of his authority.

This new ICC court was created by the 1st of July, 2002,  and sits in The HagueNetherlands..  The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression. As a court of last resort, it seeks to complement, not replace, national Courts. Governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute, the ICC is the world's first permanent international criminal court.   As of December 2020, there are 123 ICC member states; 42 states have neither signed nor become parties to the Rome Statute.  Israel is not one of them.  They have jurisdiction over only those that have signed on.  This is questionable then, to take Israel to court.  

In fact, it's crazy to take Israel to court for "war crimes.".  They were a people that the Nazis tried to eradicate, and in the most brutal of ways as if anyway would be acceptable. It's the Jews who have brought to the world such phrases as the Golden Rule; not to do things to people you wouldn't want to happen to yourselves (Hillel).   Nothing has been more shocking in this world than the Holocaust.  Prime Minister Netanyahu was outraged and said, "“The decision of the International Court to open an investigation against Israel today for war crimes is absurd. It’s undiluted antisemitism and the height of hypocrisy,” he said in a videotaped statement.                         

“The Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.” – British Colonel (ret) Richard Kemp. Colonel Richard Justin Kemp CBE is a retired British Army officer who served from 1977 to 2006. Kemp was an infantry battalion commanding officer. Among his assignments were the command of Operation Fingal in Afghanistan from July to November 2003, and work for the Joint Intelligence Committee and COBR.

The Presidency of the ICC is responsible for the proper administration of the Court (apart from the Office of the Prosecutor). It comprises the President and the First and Second Vice-Presidents—three judges of the Court who are elected to the Presidency by their fellow judges for a maximum of two three-year terms.                                                              

The current president is Chile Eboe-Osuji, a Nigerian lawyer,  who was elected 11 March 2018, succeeding Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi (first female president). He was the judge last year whose three-year term expires this year.

The Judicial Divisions consist of the 18 judges of the Court, organized into three chambers—the Pre-Trial Chamber, Trial Chamber and Appeals Chamber—which carry out the judicial functions of the Court. Judges are elected to the Court by the Assembly of States Parties. They serve nine-year terms and are not generally eligible for re-election. All judges must be nationals of states parties to the Rome Statute, and no two judges may be nationals of the same state. They must be "persons of high moral character, impartiality and integrity who possess the qualifications required in their respective States for appointment to the highest judicial offices".      

In the United States, one on trial has the benefit of our 6th amendment.  "In all criminal cases – the defendant has the constitutional right to have a jury of their peers at trial (note that “peers” often means citizens,  also note that a blue ribbon jury would violate this right). This right can be found in the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution where it states, “the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury.”  The purpose of this provision is to ensure that a jury’s verdict is not tainted by biases that jurors may harbor before being presented with the evidence of the particular case. Readily recognized biases include gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, etc.  Surely, Israel can expect such rights from the international scene.  It's not happening.  

                                Fatou Bensouda of Gambia, the prosecutor of the ICC,

I contend that the ICC is a tainted court, already partial to the Palestinian Arabs, with the first reason being that they cannot put Israel on trial as Israel is not a member of their group.  They have not signed to become a member.  The 2nd reason is the already displayed partiality for the Palestinian cause citing the wording, Palestine.  There is no country of Palestine as yet.  According to UN standards of becoming a state, they have not fulfilled them.  However,......

The United Nations is neither a State nor a Government, and therefore does not possess any authority to recognize either a State or a Government, but it did recognize Israel as a legal state when Truman voted for it on May 14, 1948.   As an organization of independent States, it may admit a new State to its membership or accept the credentials of the representatives of a new Government.  The UN Charter codifies the major principles of international relations, from sovereign equality of States to the prohibition of the use of force in international relations.                                           

    Israelis of Ashkelon running for a bomb shelter after rocket alert

The Palestinians have been a part of every war against Israel with the neighboring states since 1947.  It has been their first step in attacking Israel and its citizens in every fight.  Israel has been driven to defend itself to stop  attacks.  In major defensive moves of the Israelis, the Palestinians always have suffered more casualties than Israelis due to the fact that their leaders consider them worth the loss in order to gain footage in the battle.  In fact, this must be their plan;  they hide bombs in schools, etc.  They put their own people in harm's way in order to gain sympathy to their cause, and it has worked.            

Israel, on the other hand,  has a very small population and a love of life.  La Chaim is our toast; to life!  They do everything to keep their own soldiers alive.  Muslim's highest reward is death in defense of their religion with a reward of 72 virgins.  Jews' are the opposite and have no reward in death; they choose life. These are very opposing battles of religious reasons as well as political ones.   Israel has returned home and the Palestinians refuse to allow them to be there.  They want the land for themselves without any Jews in  it.


To be accepted as a state among nations, one expects normality.  Such has not been the case with regular attacks of rockets, mortars and missiles from Palestinians attacking Israel, with tunnels being dug into their lands to assist in kidnapping people or transporting arms.   Normal behavior is often only recognized in contrast to abnormality. In its simplest form, normality is seen as good while abnormality is seen as bad. Palestinians have not shown the world that their intention is to be a good neighbor.  They continue to be Israel's active enemy, constantly attacking in every way possible, even in flying kites carrying fire in order to burn the Israeli fields.  How Israel has responded as been the most humane anyone can behave in such circumstances. 

 2009:   Richard Goldstone of South Africa, a judge whose findings  sparked outrage in Israel and the initiation of a personal campaign against Goldstone. In 2011, in the light of investigations by the Israeli forces which indicated that they had not intentionally targeted civilians as a matter of policy, Goldstone wrote that if evidence, which had been available later, had been available at the time, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.   Goldstone was president of the Jewish training and education charity World ORT between 1997 and 2004.  He was an honorary member of the Board of Governors of Hebrew University for over ten years prior to June 2010, when the University announced he had been dropped from the Board due to inactivity "for a decade or more". In April 2010, Jerusalem lawyer David Schonberg had requested Goldstone be removed from the Board because of the UN report on Gaza. A University spokesperson stated that removing inactive members was a routine procedure, that other inactive members had also been removed, and that Goldstone's removal had "nothing to    do with his report about Gaza.  Sadly, this Jewish Goldstone

                      knew nothing about the discipline and 

methods taught to our IDF.  I say he lacked the טַעַם (tam) of being a Jewish soldier in Israel.  The "Spirit of the IDF", a text within the IDF's main doctrine, requires "honoring the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish ... state", referring to both "the tradition of the Jewish People throughout their history" and "universal moral values based on the value and dignity of human life". Jewish religious law does not directly determine IDF policy, and the IDF Doctrine Statement is not a religious document, but its underlying religious basis was articulated by Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren (1917–1994), who had served in the IDF as both paratrooper and chief chaplain.

Once before, The Goldstone Report accused both the Israel Defense Forces and the Palestinian militants (Hamas)  of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.  They were a team established in April 2009 pursuant to Resolution A/HRC/RES/S-9/1 of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) of 12 January 2009, following the Gaza War as an independent international fact-finding mission "to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law by the occupying Power, Israel, against the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly in the occupied Gaza Strip, due to the current aggression." 

Gaza's population in 1949 was 30,000.  It went up to 119,000 in 1967.  Today is holds 1.816 million Palestinians.    

Did they forget to mention that  Israel emptied Gaza of its Jewish citizens in September 2005 in order to give it all to the Palestinians in the name of having peace and in turn Hamas terrorists won the vote-probably with the help of its Hamas terrorists of being the government of Gaza?  This is how the Palestinians thanked them for their decision; attacks by mortars, rockets and missiles against Israel.   Judea and Samaria, the ancient lands of Israel now called The West Bank, inhabited by the other Palestinian  political power, the PA, run by Arafat, head terrorist,  until his death, had their share of terrorists until they moved into Gaza and took it over from him.  Israel has been forced to fight defensively against attacks at all times.                                                  

                  Attendants at the Khartoum Conference in 1967.  President of Egypt is in the middle.  

Israelis have tried to negotiate at every opportunity since 1947.  Their answer in 1967 was NO NO NO, the 3 famous no's  as decided by them in the Khartoum conference held in Africa..   

                     Israeli kindergarten during rocket attack in central Israel 

Attacks from Palestinians have not stopped.  They carried on, even after the Goldstone Report.  Remember the NO NO No's.  The 2014 Gaza war also known as Operation Protective Edge (Hebrewמִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן‎, Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, lit. "Operation Strong Cliff")[note 3][26][27][28] was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas members, the IDF conducted Operation Brother's Keeper to arrest militant leaders, Hamas fired rockets into Israel and a seven-week conflict broke out. It was one of the deadliest conflicts between the Palestinians and Israel in decades. The combined Israeli airstrikes and ground bombardment and Palestinian rocket attacks resulted in thousands of deaths, the vast majority of which were Gazans.

In the morning session of 6 July, Israeli witnesses and representatives testified in front of the committee, describing years of living under rocket attack. The last to take the floor during the session was Noam Shalit, father of the Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit who at that time had been imprisoned in Gaza for three years, with no visit by the Red Cross permitted. Later that day, pro-Palestinian witnesses and experts from Israel and the West Bank testified. The next day, a military expert testified on weapons use by Hamas and Israel and an international law expert testified at Goldstone's Gaza hearings. Following the two-day session, Goldstone said that the investigation entered its final phase, but that it was too soon to conclude that war crimes were committed.

The UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict concluded that the operation was "a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability". The Israeli government's analysis concludes that the report perverts international law to serve a political agenda and sends a "legally unfounded message to states everywhere confronting terrorism that international law has no effective response to offer them"

Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor of the ICC, announced Wednesday that the court would initiate "an investigation respecting the Situation in Palestine.  This is her first mistake.  There is no Palestine; as a matter of fact, there never has been a country of Palestine. Fatou Bom Bensouda is a Gambian lawyer and international criminal law prosecutor. She has been the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor since June 2012, after having served as a Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecutions Division of the ICC since 2004.

                                                  

Illustrative. Palestinian protesters demonstrate and burn tires near the border with Israel in the Gaza Strip, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, on April 13, 2018. (Sliman Khader/Flash90)

Israeli  IDF has its own Israeli Supreme Court who make decisions on the IDF behaviors.  State attorneys on Sunday defended the army’s use of live ammunition during clashes with Palestinian demonstrators on the border with the Gaza Strip, saying the rules of engagement are within Israeli and international law, and that the riots cannot be considered simple civilian demonstrations.  Attorneys were responding to two petitions filed by rights organizations concerning the open fire regulations employed by the Israel Defense Forces when confronting the protests, which have been encouraged by the Hamas terror group.  This is but one example of what goes on in Israel over the acts of any IDF situation.  It's been a new type of war, one without end, one of attack and defend.  


Israel has seen enough factfinders and recognizes whose side they are on.  Concerns were raised regarding rising anti-Semitism and related violence deemed related to the conflict.

Update 9:26 pm PST:  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/harris-speaks-with-netanyahu-amid-icc-probe/ar-BB1efZ7j?ocid=se  Harris and Biden are in agreement with me!!!


https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ruach-tzahal-idf-code-of-ethics

https://toolkit.theicenter.org/content/idf-code-ethics/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purity_of_arms#:~:text=Tactical%20and%20ethical%20dilemmas,-In%20combat%20and&text=Human%20Life%3A%20%22The%20IDF%20servicemen,to%20carry%20out%20their%20mission.%22    Col Kemp...

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/jul/6/chile-eboe-osuji-international-criminal-court-pres/ 

https://www.icc-cpi.int/

 https://worldisraelnews.com/undiluted-anti-semitism-netanyahu-outraged-blasts-icc-decision/?

:htm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=vwo_notification_1614796994&vwo_powered=1

https://www.un.org/en/sections/what-we-do/uphold-international-law/

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/jury_of_one%27s_peers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Fact_Finding_Mission_on_the_Gaza_Conflict

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Gaza_War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Israel_Defense_Forces

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court





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