What ICC warrants against Israel really mean

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Nov. 21 for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza. The charges address crimes that began on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after the heroic Al-Aqsa Flood initiated by Hamas. The war crimes in question continued up until late May 20, 2024, when the ICC’s prosecutor first made the requests for the warrants based on overwhelming evidence produced by South African officials during hearings at The Hague in the Netherlands. 

The warrants state that the ICC found “reasonable grounds” against these two war criminals who authorized the Israel Occupation Forces to carry out non-stop airstrikes and bombings against a defenseless Palestinian civilian population resulting in the deaths and maiming of hundreds of thousands of people, a large percentage of them children. Civilian infrastructure, especially hospitals, schools and historic cultural sites along with whole residential areas have been decimated for over a year now, with no end in sight. 

The warrants also accuse Netanyahu and Gallant of the slow and painful deaths from forced starvation and the famine that has gripped northern Gaza and other parts of occupied Palestine. Both the IOF and fascist Zionist settlers have destroyed and blocked the vast majority of humanitarian aid from reaching the besieged population for months. 

It comes as no surprise that both the Israeli and U.S. governments have falsely denounced the warrants as being “antisemitic,” a charge meant to create a smokescreen for the ongoing genocide the war criminals continue to carry out. 

What the warrants signal is that the 125 countries which signed onto the ICC have the option to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if these two war criminals set foot in any of these countries. The ICC does not have a police force that can carry out this task. Along with several other countries, the U.S. and Israel are not signers to the ICC. While symbolic at best, these warrants are an embarrassment to the apartheid state of Israel and its biggest ally, the U.S. “Genocide Joe” administration and will no doubt lead to the further isolation of Netanyahu’s heinous, fragile regime, unprecedented in the existence of the Zionist state.

Mayor Abdullah Hammoud of Dearborn, Michigan, has stated that Netanyahu and Gallant will be arrested if they come to his city. “Other cities should declare the same,” the mayor posted on X. Dearborn has the largest percentage of Arab residents of any city in the U.S.

In the meantime, the global movement must continue to vehemently demand, with all forms of mass protests and direct actions, an end to this racist ethnic cleansing by demanding that the U.S. and its imperialist allies, including Germany, cease sending weapons to Israel. At the same time, the movement must also show solidarity with the heroic Palestinian Resistance, which is not slowing down one iota to wait for any arrest warrants to be implemented. 

The next big day to express this global support will be Nov. 29 — the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine.