In an egregious instance of malign virtue signalling, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that because of “who we are as Canadians” he would “abide by” a blatantly political decision of the discredited International Criminal Court (ICC) to enforce arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, who is probably deceased.
Canadians should not unthinkingly accept false charges in a biased prosecution of the Jewish state which is fighting a defensive war against a recognized terrorist organization. Canada is not a morally blind country that would countenance an inversion of truth to condemn a democratic ally protecting its citizens and reward avowed genocidal criminals behind the rape, torture, murder, and kidnapping of about 1,200 men, women, children, and infants.
The specific charges against the Israelis are starvation as a method of warfare, crimes against humanity, and intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population. The charges are erroneous in fact and law, a moral affront, and impose a classic double standard on Israel in a modern day Dreyfus persecution of the innocent to protect the guilty.
The ICC’s structure is fundamentally defective. It was created in 1998 independent of the Security Council, ironically to avoid political interference. Its jurisdiction extends to crimes committed by signatories and to non-signatories on the territory of signatories. Yet, violations perpetrated by leaders of a non-signatories in their own countries are not covered, which leads to the “travelling dictator” exemption.
The overarching flaw is that many of the worst human rights abuses are committed by dictators inside their borders — Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Bashar al-Assad, and the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, among many others. The U.S., China, Russia, India, Israel, and dozens of other countries have not signed on to the ICC. Legal scholar Jack Goldsmith wrote in the University of Chicago Law review that Americans are concerned about political prosecutions before an unaccountable court and the uncertainty of international criminal law. Both concerns are relevant in the current case.
During the Second World War, the Allies bombed German cities to demoralize the citizenry, unlike Israel, which never bombed sites to deliberately kill civilians. Applying the ICC’s interpretation of its rules to Israelis would have made war criminals of FDR, Churchill, and Mackenzie King. Hitler, however, could have argued for an exemption since the Holocaust was committed in territories controlled by the Reich.
The ICC does not have jurisdiction in this case since the charges violate the fundamental principle that it is a court of last resort and can only proceed when a state fails to do so on its own. Israel’s courts are highly independent, to the point that a president and prime minister were sent to prison, and its courts are currently investigating Netanyahu.
The false charge of starvation as a method of warfare was covered last week. Food Israel delivered to Gaza provided over 3,100 calories per person per day, or 40 per cent higher than the accepted humanitarian standard. Also, Israel has shipped over 1.1 million tons of goods since the Hamas attack. One complication is that Hamas regularly steals food relief and sells to Gazans for a profit, a continuation of the theft of aid that enabled its top three leaders to amass a staggering $11 billion for their lavish lifestyle in Qatar.
The charge that Israel targeted civilians is contradicted by the facts. Because of its policy of harm mitigation, Israel has implemented extraordinary measures to prevent civilian casualties, more than any other country. the IDF uses precision-guided munitions. It provides warnings by phone, text, and flyers, often days and weeks in advance, in spite of the obvious disadvantages to its forces. It evacuates urban areas before attacks begin. However, its task is made much more difficult because Hamas fighters wear civilian clothing, use the population as human shields to protect themselves, and hide their armaments in mosques, schools and hospitals.
There will be consequences for this appalling perversion of the justice system by a rogue court. Senator Lindsay Graham intends to introduce legislation to sanction any country that cooperates with the ICC warrants and he explicitly referenced Canada. In June, a bipartisan vote passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 247 to 155 to sanction ICC officials, which would include the ICC Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, who incidentally is under investigation for sexual harassment. Also, some critics want to dismantle the ICC, since it is irredeemably hostile to American interests.
It may not be possible to draw a direct line between a willingness to arrest Israel’s leader on spurious charges to last week’s violent pro-Palestinian riots in Montreal where a masked hooligan shouted that the final solution is coming, which is a hate crime under the Criminal Code. However, Justin Trudeau is playing with fire when his ritual condemnation of antisemitism is belied by hostility to Israel, a lack of meaningful action to counter widespread verbal and physical violence targeting the Jewish community, and destructive protests threatening peace and tolerance in Canadian society.
National Post
Joe Oliver served as minister of natural resources and minister of finance in the Harper government.