Yoav Gallant to Travel to US despite ICC Arrest Warrant for Gaza War Crimes

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (Design: Palestine Chronicle)

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Gallant will reportedly travel on a scheduled El Al flight, “risking an emergency landing in one of the 123 countries that recognize the jurisdiction” of the ICC.

Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant plans to travel to Washington despite an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over war crimes in Gaza, Israeli media reported.

Israel’s Army Radio said Gallant will hold talks with US security officials during his visit.

His trip is scheduled for next Sunday, according to YNet News.

On Thursday, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Gallant and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Gallant was scheduled to travel to the US in early October but was postponed by Netanyahu at the last minute, “conditioning it on a phone call between himself and President Joe Biden,” the report said. Less than four weeks later, Netanyahu dismissed Gallant and appointed Israel Katz in the position.

Legal Obligations

A Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) report said Gallant “will travel on a scheduled El Al flight, risking an emergency landing in one of the 123 countries that recognize the jurisdiction of the court in The Hague and are legally obligated to execute any arrest warrant it issues.”

According to ICC regulations, trials in absentia are not conducted, where the defendants must be physically present for the case to begin.

‘No Pick and Choose’ – EU Chief Says Member States Obliged to Implement ICC Decisions

As the Hague-based court has no police to enforce its warrants, it depends on its member states to implement its orders.

On Saturday, EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the states “that signed the Rome convention are obliged to implement the decision of the court. It’s not optional.”

He emphasized that the ICC’s decisions “are legally binding: there is no pick & choose,” adding that “threats against it are unacceptable,” including from the US.

US Rejection of Warrants

The White House said on Thursday that it rejected the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Slamming the warrants as “outrageous,” President Joe Biden said that “whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

Meanwhile, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) pledged to impose sanctions on the court in the coming year.

“The ICC’s arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant is outrageous, unlawful, and dangerous,” Thune stated.

Ongoing Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 44,211 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 104,567 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

Millions Displaced

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(PC, Anadolu)

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2 Comments

  1. As the “Hague Invasion Act” directly violates the prior commitments of the US concerning NATO countries, NATO Charter Art. 5, which due to the Supremacy Clause in the US Constitution is now the US’s supreme law of the land, and sets the US military against itself, the “Hague Invasion Act” incites insurrection in the US military, and thus runs afoul of the US Constitution Amendment 14. Anyone who obeys the :Hague Invasion Act” is therefore in insurrection against the US and … Russian “troll farms” are going to have a field day with this.

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