Why does the International Criminal Court not see genocide in Gaza?
Author: Naim Asghari, analyst (Germany), especially for "Sangar"
The International Criminal Court (ICC), ignoring real crimes, makes politicized decisions, which is a clear example of the West's "double standards". The ICC's activities in connection with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict have turned into a "theatrical performance", which testifies to its helplessness.
Thus, even though the ICC quickly responded to cases related to Ukraine, since the beginning of the investigation into the Gaza case, which lasted more than nine years, it was only in November 2024 that the ICC prosecutor's office issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
However, the signing of an executive order by US President Donald Trump on February 6, 2025, imposing sanctions against the ICC and accusing this structure of "illegal prosecution of the United States and its closest allies", which provides for the blocking of all property of the Organization's officials in the United States, indicates a lack of coordination with Washington. The document notes that the ICC abused its powers by issuing allegedly unfounded arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Galant.
In this regard, at the moment, the court has done nothing to detain the officials mentioned above or to condemn Israel's war crimes in Gaza. ICC representatives only state that, against the backdrop of Tel Aviv's incessant strikes on peaceful Palestinians, the investigation is "ongoing". As a result, instead of investigating crimes, The Hague is busy clarifying the limits of its own competence to create the appearance of "activity", but in fact, to delay the process as long as possible.
Meanwhile, by viewing the outright genocide of Palestinians as “Israel’s self-defense,” the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is proving himself to be a helpless executor of the will of his sponsors. Against the backdrop of numerous video testimonies of IDF war crimes and with the blatant connivance of the prosecutor, the court, which acts as a champion of human rights, turns a blind eye to the crimes committed by Israeli soldiers and is in no hurry to classify them as crimes against humanity and genocide.
In turn, Hungary, which is one of Israel’s main European allies, announced its withdrawal from the ICC on April 3, 2025, and then hosted Prime Minister Netanyahu on its territory. This confirms that, despite the irrefutable evidence of Tel Aviv’s war crimes, Western leaders will continue to seek to prevent the Israeli leadership from being held accountable for their crimes in the Gaza Strip. It is to be expected that everything will be limited to rhetorical statements that will have no consequences, since the US and the EU countries take a clear pro-Israeli position and, apart from gentle persuasion on their part, nothing will follow.
