Mark Kersten
@MarkKersten
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Human Rights, International Criminal Justice, Canadian Law | Prof @goUFV | @WayamoFound | BCL/JD McGill | PhD, @LSEnews | Author: Justice in Conflict (OUP 2016)
Vancouver, British Columbia
Joined April 2009
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Pinned Tweet
Yesterday, I testified before the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs & Int'nal Development.
I focused on Canada's lack of commitment to prosecuting international crimes under Universal Jurisdiction + in Israel/Palestine.
My speech:
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If this is true, it should never have happened.
The US is not a member-state of the
#ICC
, and the Court should not be holding meetings or accepting calls from the senators of a non-member state trying to undermine the institution's independence & interfere with its work.
Scoop: A bipartisan group of senators held a confidential virtual meeting Wednesday with senior officials at the International Criminal Court to express concern about possible arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.
@stephen_neukam
& I write for
@axios
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Can't emphasize this enough: Warning people of attacks, no matter how it is done or many times it is done, does not absolve states from abiding by International Humanitarian Law.
Civilians who do not move can never be targeted, warning or no warning. Period.
"We've carried out six million text messages and four million phone calls to the citizens of Gaza, according to the rules of international law."
Israeli president Isaac Herzog speaks in Tel Aviv.
Warning: this video contains flash photography
📺Sky 501
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Important context: the protest here👇 in Vaughan, Ontario is reportedly happening bc the synagogue is hosting a real estate sales event seeking to sell properties in the West Bank, a practice that is illegal under international law & a war crime. If true, police must investigate.
Quite a scene developing outside a Thornhill synagogue today. Mayor
@StevenDelDuca
has called for calm.
@YRP
on the scene — just hours after Pro-Hamas protesters shut down
@JustinTrudeau
@GiorgiaMeloni
event at the
@agotoronto
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Great news: Congratulations to everyone who spoke up, acted, & pushed 🇨🇦 to reverse course. It worked!
Canada will now resume funding to
#UNRWA
, with a scheduled payment in April of $25 million + new funding, according to a senior government official.
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The ICJ case over alleged genocide in Gaza is a game changer.
This is the "world court". It can't be ignored or dismissed. Israel signed the Genocide Convention. If it is found to have committed genocide, states sending it arms & failing to prevent genocide would be complicit.
"State officials fear International Court of Justice could charge Israel with genocide in Gaza"
Watch this space. This is not a UN commission or the ICC - it's a court that derives its power from the genocide convention, which Israel joined.
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In a terrible take that makes numerous easily avoidable mistakes,
@TheEconomist
says: "the ICC should prosecute only when states are 'unwilling or unable to do so genuinely'. Israel is a democracy with an independent judiciary."
This is legally & factually incorrect. Short 🧵👇
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A short(ish) 🧵 on reports that Netanyahu and his government are in emergency talks over credible "information" they have received that the
#ICC
plans to issue warrants against senior figures in the Israeli government, including Netanyahu.
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Canada was to announce restoring funding to
#UNRWA
.
The press conference was set. Reports say 🇨🇦's UN Ambassador Bob Rae was going to attend.
Then it was cancelled & Trudeau won't commit to restoring UNRWA funding.
WTF. What happened? Who is in charge?
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Unfortunate to see misunderstandings of the basic law of genocide. Genocide *is not* a numbers game.
In Srebrenica, a genocide, 8,000 men and boys died. I hope this 👇 is not a denial of that, or intentional misinformation. Again, genocide is not a mere measure of the # of dead.
People often misconstrue the term 'genocide.' If Israel were indeed committing genocide, the death toll would be in the hundreds of thousands. The situation in Israel is undeniably concerning, as no one wishes for loss of life. However, it's crucial to recognize that Israel, like
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@wpgpolice
This is a bad look. It's the Indigenous missing & murdered women & girls, the victims left in Winnipeg landfills that should be investigated by "Major Crimes", not graffiti stemming from anger bc of inadequate police protection & investigation of atrocities against Indigenous ppl
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What military objective could fully demolishing Gaza’s Supreme Court possibly have?
Targeting civilian infrastructure that has not lost its protections under international humanitarian law is a war crime.
🔴WATCH: The Supreme Court House in Gaza being demolished
📹- 27A
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Not a single current Canadian government official - not
@JustinTrudeau
, not
@BobRae48
, not
@MelanieJoly
- has ever supported or called for an independent, impartial, and international investigation of Israeli attacks on hospitals and clinics in Gaza.
Not a single one.
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This is racist and potential hate speech, from a sitting provincial legislator.
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Significant move: Chile says it will refer the situation of Palestine to the International Criminal Court 👇
The
#ICC
already has jurisdiction in Palestine & an ongoing investigation there. But as with Ukraine, the more states that support the Court's investigation the better.
Hoy en Asamblea General de la ONU: "Chile presentará prontamente la remisión de la situación en Palestina a la fiscalía de la Corte Penal Internacional para que se investiguen los crímenes que se cometen en los territorios palestinos ocupado”.
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“Netanyahu is leading a "non-stop push over the telephone" to prevent an arrest warrant being issued against him by the ICC, particularly communicating w the White House.”
I have no doubt the US (+ others) will threaten the ICC, & hope the Prosecutor ignores every such attempt.
US working to prevent ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu: Reports
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Perfidy is committed when a person invokes the provisions of the Geneva Conventions meant for the protection of persons (including medics), with the intent to betray, kill, injure, or capture an adversary.
It is a war crime. When committed, it must be investigated & punished.
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🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
Keep the pressure up. It’s working. A lot left to do, but this is excellent news.
Canada has stopped issuing export permits for selling military equipment to Israel, according to sources familiar with the matter.
#cdnpoli
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Again: it make take time, but if Ben-Gvir is not sent to the
#ICC
or otherwise held criminally accountable for atrocity crimes, the world will have failed.
Few have basked so utterly and so obviously in promoting international crimes.
Israel's police chief says Minister Ben-Gvir appealed directly to police commanders to stop protecting Gaza aid convoys from far-right marauders
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It also doesn't matter that the 🇮🇱 is a democracy.
To be absolutely clear: being a 👏 democracy👏does not 👏absolve 👏 responsibility for 👏atrocities.
There's no law that says "you can commit crimes against humanity and war crimes if you also hold elections."
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Do I think 🇮🇱 is committing genocide in Gaza?
We see incitement to destroy Gaza, govt moves to forcibly expel civilians, intentional starvation, impeded medical aid…AND even if it’s not yet determined, the risk of genocide is OBVIOUS & there is an obligation to prevent it. NOW.
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If Ben-Gvir does not end up before the
#ICC
or some other international court facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the world will have failed.
In response to US & European sanctions against Israeli settlers, 🇮🇱 sets up a new police unit to arrest activists who monitor settler activities & protect Palestinians.
@melaniejoly
said 🇨🇦 would impose similar sanctions on Feb 4, but never followed up.
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🚨 Canada will not present in the
#ICJ
case over the legal consequences of the occupation of 🇵🇸 .
This is big news bc 🇨🇦 previously sided with 🇮🇱 in this case.
If anyone knows why the change of heart, lmk.
But if 🇨🇦 has nothing useful to say, non-interference is always better!
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Just weeks before the
#ICC
issued warrants for Gaddafi and others in Libya, it put out a call for qualified staff with Arabic language skills.
So yeah, this 👇 is a very good sign that warrants are coming for senior Israeli officials (in combination w warrants for Hamas).
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No.
Genocide requires intent to destroy a population *in whole or in part*, not a "large proportion".
The Genocide Convention also applies to *preventing* genocide. Read it please. It's not hard.
Numbers may help establish intent, but are not determinative of genocide. Period.
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If the
#ICJ
issues provisional measures - an end to military ops in Gaza, an end to expulsions, allowing food & aid in, giving access to a fact-finding mission - what happens next?
The ICJ's orders are binding, but there's no enforcement mechanism. So what's the point?
Brief 🧵
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This is grotesque and shocking.
This group👇🏼 is condemning a statement that literally called on Israel to respect international law & is now asking Canada to *unconditionally* support Israel amidst a sea of allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity & alleged genocide.
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A key point about the nature of genocides:
They are *not* an event. They are a *process* that requires many things to coalesce.
Genocides are fuelled and emboldened by years of- sometimes decades - of impunity for non-genocidal atrocities & dehumanization of target groups.
South Africa legal team's Adila Hassim
@CIJ_ICJ
: “Genocides are never declared in advance, but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct & related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts.”
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@jerlevi
No. Genocide law does not require hundreds of thousands to die. It never has. The # of dead may help establish intent but *is not* determinative of genocide. In Srebrenica, 8,000 men and boys were killed in the genocide. Please be more careful and learn the basic law of genocide.
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And rightfully so.
Dutch lawmakers demand probe into Israel's alleged espionage against ICC:
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ICC ❤️ Ben-Gvir
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To protect the "most moral army in the world", lawmakers in the "greatest democracy in the world", just voted to sanction the only permanent international criminal court in the world.
#ICC
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Israel may have a fine judiciary, but it completely fails the first part of the test.
It is not investigating or prosecuting Netanyahu or Gallant for the same conduct that the
#ICC
Prosecutor is seeking to prosecute them for.
The ICC can therefore proceed, as a matter of law.
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Wow. Terrific response.
NDP and Jewish MP
@LeahGazan
asks
@AHousefather
: "when you see a child... does he see Hamas or a child, because what I see are fellow human beings... and I'm wondering if he supports peace with the purpose of stopping the murder of children."
Cannot believe this is being said in the House of Commons.
@AHousefather
joins Conservatives in endorsing rhetoric justifying the collective punishment of 🇵🇸civilians, saying recognizing 🇵🇸 as a state is "a reward for Hamas".
Hamas ≠ Palestine.
Sad day for humanity & truth.
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“We will be inviting the [ICJ] to consider the issue of broadening how you determine whether genocide has taken place or not on the basis of an entire population being collectively punished”
Ireland backs bid to include blocking aid in genocide definition
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These events require investigation by the
#ICC
as a double war crime 👇
Posing as a medical professional or protected person under IHL to kill adversaries is illegal and a war crime.
So too is killing adversaries who are no longer in active combat, such as injured fighters.
“about 10 members of Israeli special forces dressed in civilian clothes went to the third floor [of the hospital], where they killed the men using weapons fitted with silencers”
In any other country, we’d call this a government death squad.
Sheesh.
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Sad news. Ben Ferencz has died at age 103. From Nuremberg to today, his was a life that touched everyone in the world of international criminal law. Ben was a giant of justice & moral clarity. Let us honour Ben’s life by continuing his work in the pursuit of Law, Not War. 💛✌🏼
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‼️‼️‼️
A group of 🇨🇦 human rights lawyers & Palestinian Canadians who lost loved ones Gaza sue Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly to block exports of military goods and technology to Israel, arguing doing so is in breach of domestic and int’al law
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It's wrong & offensive to imply that the atrocities of democracies are less bad or less deserving of accountability.
But the idea that 🇮🇱 should enjoy impunity for atrocities isn't surprising from
@TheEconomist
, which has only ever supported the
#ICC
prosecuting non-Westerners.
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Israel's PM Netanyahu rejects Hamas's proposed ceasefire terms and says "total victory" in Gaza is possible within months
We cannot afford the additional atrocities that Netanyahu’s “total victory” means.
States must call for & secure a
#CeasefireNow
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Note too that the PM of Israel is effectively erasing the existence of the *Palestinian* land of the
#WestBank
by referring to it as Judea & Samaria.
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Cannot believe this is being said in the House of Commons.
@AHousefather
joins Conservatives in endorsing rhetoric justifying the collective punishment of 🇵🇸civilians, saying recognizing 🇵🇸 as a state is "a reward for Hamas".
Hamas ≠ Palestine.
Sad day for humanity & truth.
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The ICC is a court of last resort based on the principle of complementarity. But complementarity is a two-part test:
1) Is the state actively investigating/prosecuting the same persons for the same conduct as the ICC?
2) If so, is it able & willing to do so genuinely?
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247 American lawmakers just joined the Taliban, Russia' Putin, and Sudan's Omar al-Bashir in wanting to destroy the International Criminal Court.
House passes bill to sanction ICC officials – Republicans' response to the court seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
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“We’ve found corpses of women, children and individuals without heads as well as torn body parts.”
Mass graves and body bags: al-Shifa hospital after Israel's withdrawal - BBC News
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Canada's gov't pulled funding for
#UNRWA
, a form of collective punishment of Gaza's civilians.
But Liberal MP
@AHousefather
& Conservative MP
@MelissaLantsman
went further, speaking at a conference to call for the full-out termination of UNRWA.
This is stunning & deplorable.
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"I saw even small children with direct sniper shot wounds to the head as well as in the chest. They were not combatants, they were small children."
‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza
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The Economist says a successor gov't in 🇮🇱 "would probably appoint a judge-led commission of inquiry into the war."
That's (thankfully) not how the law works. The ICC investigates individuals & expects states to hold their own to account. If they won't, the ICC can & should act.
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On the day the
#ICJ
orders 🇮🇱 to allow relief into Gaza to prevent genocide-by-starvation,
@HonAhmedHussen
stops funding to the UN's largest aid agency in Gaza.
Those who participated in Hamas atrocities must be prosecuted. But this is collective punishment. It's reprehensible.
Canada unequivocally condemns the October 7th attack on Israel. I am deeply troubled by the allegations relating to some UNRWA employees. I have instructed Global Affairs Canada to pause all additional funding to UNRWA pending the outcome of the investigation. Read my statement:
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So, beware of lazy reporting or outright attempts to obfuscate how the basics of the
#ICC
& international law works.
Most of these are intended to defend a violent & racist status quo in which accountability + peace are only presented as feasible if they are profitable.
✌️
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Every single university in Gaza has been destroyed by your forces, on your command.
Every single one.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
"What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific. Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty.
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The story is basically this
1⃣Israel asked Canada to end
#UNRWA
funding. It did.
2⃣The United States asked Canada to resume UNRWA funding. It did.
So, who makes Canadian foreign policy? This debacle seems to make clear that it isn't actually Canada.
#cdnpoli
#cdnfp
Canada’s aid minister says Washington’s ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, asked him to restore Canada’s UNRWA funding. The U.S. embassy in Ottawa isn’t denying this claim.
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The
#ICC
is not immune to intelligence operations and espionage - and Israel is good at those things. So too are its allies. They'll be aware of developments before they happen.
I wrote about spies at the ICC a few years back:
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Someone will say there are terror tunnels under the building, even though it's filmed empty.
Someone will say it could be used as a terrorist base.
Someone will say whatever they want. But the law says intentionally targeting cultural sites & religious buildings is a war crime.
Khan Younis |
Israeli soldiers from the 66th battalion film the mosque with a drone, observing that it is completely empty with nothing in it, having already been destroyed.
They proceed to blow it up, reducing it to dust ->
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What will happen next?
Attacks on the Court!
Netanyahu's plan has ALWAYS been to belligerently attack the ICC and to get other states to attack the ICC to undermine any investigation. Same playbook as always, even if it makes him look guilty:
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"'This Court is built for Africa and for thugs like Putin,' is what one senior [elected] leader told me. We don’t view it like that. This Court is the legacy of Nuremberg. This Court is a sad indictment of humanity. This the triumph of law over power and brute force."
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Now a Democratic Senator is threatening the
#ICC
's very existence if it does what it was created to do: impartially and independently investigate international crimes, without fear or favour.
I hope this grotesque threat and atrocity-denialism is roundly condemned.
It would be a fatal blow to the judicial and moral standing of ICC to pursue this path against Israel.
Calling on
@POTUS
to intervene as part of the administration’s ongoing commitment to Israel.
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Someone needs to tell Israel’s lawyers that hurling insults and invective at a legal process and the
#ICJ
is a really, really dumb strategy - and will only convince people that they’ve indeed done something terribly wrong.
NEWS: on 15 February 2024, Israel submitted to the
#ICJ
its observations on the request for additional measures made by South Africa under Article 75 (1) of the Rules of Court in the case
#SouthAfrica
v.
#Israel
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3 basic facts:
✅Palestine did not commit atrocities on 7 Oct
✅The ppl of 🇵🇸 are not Hamas
✅Palestinians have a right to self-determination
To suggest otherwise is to endorse collective punishment, deny basic human rights, & endorse atrocities committed against civilians.
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Deeply troubling.
UN official Virginia Gamba met w
#ICC
fugitive, Russia's Maria Lvova-Belova. The ICC Prosecutor, who has just been targeted by an absurd an arrest warrant by the Kremlin, asked the UN not to send Gamba. He was ignored. So too were Ukraine's abducted children.
🚨 Worrying news from
@james_t_quinn
: Senior UN Official Plans Meeting with
#Russia
/n Official Wanted for War Crimes
@hrw
's
@balkeesjarrah
: "Ukrainian victims deserve to see Lvova-Belova behind bars in the Hague, not meeting with high-level UN officials."
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To those now protesting the
#ICC
warrants against them & their allies: you got SO many warnings over SO many years to change your behavior. You got too many chances to change course bc you bullied & threatened human rights workers, states & good people. Time’s up.
Law not war!
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Under International Humanitarian Law, civilian objects are protected against attacks, unless & for such time as they are military objectives.
Unless this university was housing Hamas at the time of this attack, this 👇 is a war crime under the
#ICC
's Rome Statute.
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Canada's FM
@melaniejoly
calls the
#FlourMassacre
"nightmare".
No. No. NO.
It's not a dream. It's real.
It's not a nightmare. It's an orchestrated atrocity.
It demands immediate investigation & those responsible must be held accountable.
#ICC
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The Economist also falls back on a familiar status quo in stating: "It is politics and diplomacy, not courts, that are the key to curbing violence and reviving two-state talks."
I explained how only justifies more violence in an article today:
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How much more evidence does
#ICC
Prosecutor Khan need to act on the situation in Palestine and issue warrants for those responsible for atrocities against Israelis and Palestinians?
The inaction in the face of death & destruction is getting embarrassing . 👀 ⏰
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Now, if Israel does want to challenge the admissibility of the Court, it may do so (via Article 17 of the Rome Statute).
To do so, it has to accept the authority of the Court & investigate/prosecute Netanyahu and Gallant for their crimes.
See more here:
New 🧵 on the additional questions around the
#ICC
's investigation into the situation in Palestine.
Lots of misinformation out there, so hope to clear a few things up:
✅Palestinian statehood before the ICC
✅Jurisdiction over Hamas and Israeli authorities
✅Complementarity
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"There is a real concern that Canadian taxpayers are funding extremist groups engaged in these activities."
NDP's
@nikiashton
demands gov't investigate tax-deductible charities suspected of funnelling funds to support 🇮🇱 military ops & illegal settlements
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“Occupation is horrible. Occupation is not just changing one state flag to another, occupation means enforced disappearances, rapes, torture, filtration camps, denial of your identity, forcible adoption of your own children, mass graves.” -
@avalaina
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The reported warrants already matter to figures like US Senator Tom Cotton, whose hysterics and threats against the
#ICC
do exactly the opposite of what he intends: they make it look like Israeli officials *have* committed atrocities and *need* US belligerence as protection.
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The issue is not IDF soldiers *filming* themselves doing these awful things; it's them doing these awful things.
And the reason they film themselves is because they believe, based on experience, that they will face no consequences.
Why do Israeli soldiers keep filming themselves doing this kind of crass, insensitive thing? Why don’t their commanders stop them? Makes them look callous when so many children in Gaza are being killed.
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First of all, on the veracity of the information:
It's possible that it's wrong. The ICC Office of the Prosecutor is unlikely to share news of warrants unless it was imminent (1-2 days before).
But I very much doubt meetings would be held if the information was complete bunk.
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Agreed: "The former President of the ICJ should not have publicly commented on a pending case. In doing so, she has given credence to false and bad faith interpretations of the Court's provisional measures decision. This risks the integrity of the proceedings." 👇
Former ICJ President Donoghue engages in the ethical error of obtuseness (thx
@emilykiddwhite
) when she attempts hairsplitting between plausible "rights" and "claims."
TL;DR the Court decided there was, at minimum, a serious risk of genocide or related acts in Gaza. 🧵
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This is utterly heartbreaking. But it’s not just tragic. It’s a pattern, it’s predictable and it’s atrocious.
Israel will not stop. States must do what they can to ensure that it does & that those responsible are prosecuted.
Those that refuse are complicit.
BREAKING: An Israeli air strike on a school housing thousands of displaced Palestinians has killed 'dozens' of people and injured many more, the Wafa news agency reports.
🔴 LIVE updates:
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New legal findings show that 🇨🇦 arms exports to Israel are illegal under Canadian + international law:
Honored have contributed to this legal effort along with other experts - & hopefully to Canada regaining its sense or legal and moral decency over Gaza.
Arms Exports to Israel Violate Canadian and International Law, assert CLAIHR,
@alhaq_org
, Ayman Oweida and a confidential Palestinian asylum seeker in a letter to the Federal Government
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Why the urgency now?
Israel has likely been distracted by the ICJ cases + the quiet operations of the ICC Prosecutor in recent weeks. If so, that is a smart play by Prosecutor Khan.
Any warrants issued need to be based on exceedingly strong evidence - trial ready, really.
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Reports say 🇮🇱 is actively lobbying Western states, incl ICC members 🇩🇪 +🇬🇧 .
Surely Netanyahu is relying on them acting against the Court. Not convinced they will, which is amazing.
With its support for the ICC in 🇺🇦, we'll have to wait to see likely double-speak from 🇺🇸
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What’s outrageous is Biden’s utter disregard for victims of war crimes.
But let’s be clear: Biden will feel he must attack the
#ICC
because it directly implicates his own decision making to repeatedly defend atrocities and their authors.
BREAKING: Biden: The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to
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Canada joins states to “reconfirm our unwavering support for the Court as an independent and impartial judicial institution… & to preserve its integrity from any political interference & pressure”
The actions of 🇮🇱 & 🇺🇸 against the
#ICC
must be repelled.
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Not *may* be a war crime.
Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, incl. wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions is a war crime under the Rome Statute.
Today Secretary General António Guterres invoked Art. 99 of the UN Charter.
I have emphasised the imperative that humanitarian relief be allowed into
#Gaza
immediately and at scale.
I wish to reiterate in the clearest terms possible that wilfully impeding relief supplies to
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This is not how IHL works.
Even if there are militants in a hospital, the civilians inside cannot be massacred. Any attack must apply the *basic rules* of IHL: distinction, precaution, proportionality, etc.
Look at hospital. Look at the dead. Ignore the misinformation.
🏥Under international law, hospitals must be protected.
🥷Those protections begin with not being abused as military bases, especially by terrorists.
✅When abused for military purposes, like Hamas did using Shifa as a stronghold, they don’t give terrorists immunity.
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Remarkable moment, where former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert confirms to
@mehdirhasan
that he considers Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir a "terrorist" (approx. minute 10:10)
@zeteo_news
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Good to see
#ICC
Prosecutor speak out over carnage in
#Rafah
, saying “those who do not comply w the law should not complain later when my Office takes action pursuant to its mandate.”
But for the love of all that is just, take action now! What more do you need? Play your role!
I am deeply concerned by the reported bombardment and potential ground incursion by Israeli forces in Rafah.
My Office has an ongoing and active investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine. This is being taken forward as a matter of the utmost urgency, with a
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But I highly doubt that the ICC Prosecutor will care much if states do try to interfere.
The evidence against Hamas + 🇮🇱 officials is overwhelming + exceptionally well catalogued. As the Prosecutor said: if warnings aren't heeded, offenders shouldn't be surprised w ICC action.
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A lot of folks have (understandably) criticized the
#ICC
Prosecutor's office for not acting on the situation in Palestine sooner.
A brief 🧵 to put the timing and duration of ICC decision-making into a bit of context.
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New 🧵 on the additional questions around the
#ICC
's investigation into the situation in Palestine.
Lots of misinformation out there, so hope to clear a few things up:
✅Palestinian statehood before the ICC
✅Jurisdiction over Hamas and Israeli authorities
✅Complementarity
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Netanyahu's long-standing attacks on the ICC won't work & may not be intended to, at least not as a matter of law.
They're likely intended to shore up the support of those who blindly oppose any independent investigation of any Israeli atrocities ever & deny 🇵🇸 human rights.
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We are going to see a ton of whataboutism and misinformation in the coming days on the International Criminal Court. Don’t listen. It’s a vapid deflection strategy.
And remember: no war crime and no atrocity justifies another.
Suggesting anything else is absurd.
#ICC
Murderers like
@khamenei_ir
, Nasrallah, and Sinwar are hoping for the International Criminal Court in The Hague to judge Israel. This is absurd.
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"Mr President, there’s no point 'venting' your frustration in private and telling only your aides that the war 'has to stop'. Tell that to Netanyahu. Make the call. End this genocide." -
@mehdirhasan
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Op-ed again refusing to engage w allegations in 🇿🇦’s ICJ filing over alleged genocide in Gaza, while making the unfounded claim that a state whose ppl were victims of genocide can never be accused of it.
Read the case. Let law, not war or history, decide.
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Other states -
#ICC
member-states - like 🇨🇦, 🇪🇸 and 🇧🇪 have said they will support any ICC investigations into the situation in Palestine.
The politics are shifting and arrest warrants for Hamas and Israeli leaders will have a huge political impact.
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Woah.
South Africa's FM says IDF soldiers holding dual Israeli-South African citizenship will be subject to immediate arrest upon return over Israel's war on Gaza, while Israel is apparently planning for possibility that other states will follow suit
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There is no argument of self-defence under international law that justifies what is happening in Rafah. None.
This war stopped being about self-defence a long time ago.
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In the House of Commons,
@AHousefather
repeatedly says Canadians should not protest near Synagogues and "we do not control what happens in the State of Israel."
*Again*
1⃣ people in the Synagogue were selling illegal settlements
2⃣Housefather wants to fuel 🇮🇱 war w 🇨🇦 weapons
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It is appalling to watch Canadian mainstream media incessantly cover the future of an MP in the Liberal caucus and not once ask him to explain his use of rhetoric justifying the collective punishment of Gaza’s civilians and erasing their basic human rights under int’al law.
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This is stupid + offensive to most Canadians & the vast majority of the world.
Voting to recognize Palestine as a state is not a reward for terrorists. It’s an obligation under international law. The occupation and atrocities must end. This 👇 just promises more hate and blood.
Want to be recognized as a state? Just go and brutally kill 1200+ Jews.
Thats the precedent Liberal MP’s are setting for the likes of Hamas and its supporters if they decide to vote for this motion.
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“I can’t be dishonest. I believe the rulings of the court have been ignored. Hundreds of people have been killed in the last three or four days... We are allowing this to happen again, right before our eyes, on our TV screens.” - South Africa's FM
#Gaza
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Those using Israel's illegal attacks on 🇮🇷 & Iran's illegal retaliation to advocate more weapons be sold to 🇮🇱 are advocating that int'l law be broken.
The Arms Trade Treaty explicitly prohibits selling weapons where there is a serious risk they'll be used to commit war crimes.
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