MORE than a month ago, the Internat-ional Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The ICC judges observed that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for acts, including murder, persecution and starvation, as a weapon of war employed in a ‘widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza’.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should have raised its voice against genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza, but it chose not to. We must salute the ICC for showing to the world the true face of the war criminals, although Israel is the darling of the United States and most Western countries whose conscience does not get pricked by wanton destruction of schools, hospitals, places of worship in Gaza, killing of thousands of women and children, and deliberate starving of the whole population of Gaza.

The decision given by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the matter earlier and te current warrant of arrest clearly manifest the opinion of the highest judicial authorities in the fields of international law and the laws of war. The countries that brazenly defy it have no credentials as champions of law, human rights and civilised beings.

Ross Masud
Lahore

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2025