The Self-Induced Downfall of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

The idea of creating an International Criminal Court to prosecute the world’s worst offenders, who committed the worst crimes, was a noble endeavor. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Israel and Jews were among the leading proponents of establishing such a court. In practice, however, the ICC is a colossal failure. Now, as a result of the actions of the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, and his predecessor Fatou Bensouda, the court, as an establishment, is reaching ever-deepening lows.

The previous ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, was distinctly hostile to Israel. She was the one who generated the ICC prosecution theory of a non-existent “State of Palestine.” She pushed the court into taking upon itself jurisdiction that it does not possess, to define the borders, de novo, of the non-existent state. She was also the one to officially adopt, lock-stock-and-barrel, the Palestinian narrative regarding Israel’s actions and to allege that Israeli officials had committed serious offenses.

As regards the Palestinians, Bensouda was quite forgiving and focused mainly on the actions of the acknowledged terrorists. She did however have one saving grace.

In her Report on Preliminary Examination Activities (2019),¹ Bensouda noted, inter alia, that the Office of the Prosecutor had also received allegations that the “Palestinian Authority has encouraged and provided financial incentives for the commission of violence through their provision of payments to the families of Palestinians who were involved, in particular, in carrying out attacks against Israeli citizens, and under the circumstances, the payment of such stipends may give rise to Rome Statute crimes.”

Bensouda was of course referring to the Palestinian Authority’s terror-rewarding “Pay-for-Slay” policy. The decades-old policy consists of two elements: a) the payment of monthly allowances to injured terrorists and the families of dead terrorists; and b) the payment of monthly salaries to terrorists who have been arrested by Israel. Even though the two elements are technically separate, their common goal is to encourage and incentivize participation in terror and to ensure the payment of a financial reward, as a prize for participating in acts of terror.

While the payment of allowances to injured terrorists and the families of dead terrorists is mandated by internal policies of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the payment of the salaries to the imprisoned and released terrorists is fixed in a PA law – Law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners number 19 of 2004 – and accompanying PA government regulations. According to analysts and commentators, every year, the PA spends an estimated one billion shekels paying these terror rewards.²

The terror-rewarding payments are not concealed by the PA. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has openly declared on the world stage³ and in the PA media,⁴ that even if the PA is left with only one penny in its coffers, it would pay that penny to the terrorists.

Abbas, more than any other Palestinian, is directly responsible for these payments. It was Abbas who promoted the original PA law. In 2006, Abbas approved the regulations that codified the monthly salary payments paid by the PA terrorists held in Israeli prisons. He also codified the practice of ensuring jobs to released terrorists in PA institutions. In 2010, he approved a salary hike for terrorist prisoners, including a 300% rise, from 4,000 shekels per month to 12,000 shekels per month for prisoners who serve more than 30 years in prison, i.e., murderers.

In 2007 and again in 2009 and 2013, Abbas approved hikes in the monthly allowances that the PLO pays to the wounded terrorists and families of dead terrorists.⁵

Evidence to support and substantiate the allegation that the PA terror rewarding policy incites, incentivizes, and rewards Palestinian participation can be found in abundance. Nonetheless, instead of pursuing the real terrorists, like Mahmoud Abbas, the current prosecutor, Khan, is too busy wasting the time and resources of the prosecution and the Court, inventing unsubstantiated claims against Israeli leaders.

While reports at the time suggested that Bensouda was working in close cooperation⁶ with the Palestinian leadership and representatives of the other Palestinian terror groups,⁷ Khan has now dragged the ICC to a new low.

A post⁸ on the X (formerly Twitter) account of the ICC, provided pictures of Khan meeting with the terror promoter Abbas.

Instead of referring to Abbas as the prime suspect of a multi-billion-dollar program to incentivize and reward terror and the murder of Jews, a program that not even the Nazis had, the Court’s caption accompanying the pictures declared: “At #UNGA79, #ICC Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC met w/ H.E. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine. Strengthening dialogue & cooperation central to supporting independent investigations of the Office of the Prosecutor.”

How can Khan and the court claim that they are “strengthening dialogue and cooperation central to supporting independent investigations,” when Khan has actively abandoned the most important and clear-cut investigation and meets so cordially with a prime suspect?

Sadly, despite the high hopes and aspirations that the ICC would finally bring justice to the victims and punishment to the world’s most serious war criminals, with people like Khan in central positions, the ICC is plunging into ever-deepening decay and regrettably assisting in its own suicide.

* * *

Notes