‘It Is Imperative Global Community Uphold International Law’: Sanders Backs ICC Arrests
Prosecutor wants accountability for Netanyahu, others for Mid East violence
Sen Bernie Sanders is speaking out as one of the very few US political leaders backing an international prosecutor’s call to arrest the leadership of Israel and Hamas, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Karim Khan, who became chief prosecutor of the world's first permanent war crimes court in 2021, asked pre-trial judges Monday to order the arrest of Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and three top Hamas leaders.
The British lawyer and prosecutor is seeking the bombshell arrests in connection with the string of violence that began with the October 7, 2023, attacks against Israel that left more than 1,100 Israelis dead and scores taken hostage — continues to this day with the Israeli military’s military campaign of reprisals in Gaza, which have left dead some 35,000 Palestinians. Most of those Palestinians killed have been young children and women.
Khan accused the Israeli leaders of bearing “criminal responsibility” for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including intentional attacks against civilians, willful killings and starvation of civilians as a weapon of war.
Although most US officials of both parties — including President Biden — denounced the effort to arrest the Israeli leaders, Sanders gave it his full support.
“In the last several years, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for political leaders who violate international law and engage in war crimes and crimes against humanity. That includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose illegal invasion of Ukraine initiated the most destructive war in Europe since World War II; Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who started the horrific war in Gaza by launching a terrorist attack against Israel, which killed 1,200 innocent men, women, and children; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, in response, has waged an unprecedented war of destruction against the entire Palestinian people, which has killed or injured over 5 percent of the population,” the Vermont independent said in a statement.
“The ICC prosecutor is right to take these actions. These arrest warrants may or may not be carried out, but it is imperative that the global community uphold international law,” the statement added. “Without these standards of decency and morality, this planet may rapidly descend into anarchy, never-ending wars, and barbarism.”
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