By Burak Bir
LONDON (AA) - The International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is the most crucial international humanitarian law ruling ever happened in history as "we have a monumental situation," according to the head of the International Center of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP).
In a landmark move, The Hague court on Thursday announced it had issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over war crimes in Palestinian territories, including Gaza.
In an interview with Anadolu, Tayab Ali, director of the ICJP, hailed the ICC warrants, saying that it is a "phenomenal situation that we have entered into following decades-long impunity enjoyed by Israel."
"This is the most crucial international humanitarian law ruling, I think, that has ever happened in history. And the reason for that is it's almost as significant as the creation of international humanitarian law itself after World War II," he noted.
Touching on the importance of the decision, Ali said that there is a very clear situation where Israel has belligerently occupied Palestinian land for decades as confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling and despite these crystal clear legal situations Israel is able to act with impunity.
"It's able to kill the Palestinians, it's able to oppress Palestinians, it's able to subjugate Palestinians, occupy the land, take their property, without any ounce of internal or external accountability," he said, adding that even when it does that prime ministers from countries like the UK, presidents from countries like the US champion Israel, support Israel, talk about Israel's "right to self-defense" without recognizing for a moment Israel's war crimes.
"So, what we have now is we have a monumental situation where the most significant and the highest criminal court in the world, literally has decided that there is a case for Israel to answer."
Ali stressed that the warrants mean that for the ICC there is significant evidence for them to issue arrest warrants because they think this is the case for these individuals to answer in trial at the ICC.
"It's a phenomenal situation that we've entered into," he noted.
- 'UK should unequivocally support position of ICC'
Reminding that the UK is a signatory to the Rome Statue, a member of the ICC, Ali said that Britain has duties and responsibilities that arise from that as the country also has adopted the international law into its domestic law, which brings domestic obligations for the government and police officers.
"What this means now is that, first of all, David Lammy, our foreign minister, and Keir Starmer, our prime minister, should unequivocally support the position of the ICC. And if they don't do that, it would be a disgraceful position for the British government to take," he noted.
Mentioning that the government's approach towards the issue over the past 12 months is already "disgraceful," he said now there is a "watershed moment."
He went on to say that the ICC's decision brings strict obligations on the states.
"If Yoav Gallant or Benjamin Netanyahu travel into our jurisdiction, the police should arrest them, detain them, and then hand them over to the ICC for trial."
Ali stressed that this is "really clear obligations, not just for the United Kingdom, for every member of the Rome Statute."
The warrants come as Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza recently entered its second year, having already killed some 44,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing and deliberate blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, pushing the population to the brink of starvation.
The ICC said the warrants were issued for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.