Rules For Thee But Not For Me— ICJ Edition
I remember a year ago when the ICJ finally issued an arrest warrant against Russia’s President Vladimir Putin for crimes against humanity. I’m quite active on Twitter (ok I’m very active) so I saw the massive buzz it generated online.
While some were already making memes and murals involving Putin in chains, about to be hanged (yes there are mature human beings who actually believe Putin will end up like that), others scoffed at the obvious effort in futility.
In a short time, commendations from world leaders started trooping in, most notable ones being
“This is an important decision from the court, which points to war crimes committed by the Russian apparatus of violence... Vladimir Putin is at the head of this machine and should be tried as a war criminal along with those who directly and indirectly implement barbaric warfare."
— Spokesman of the Polish Government, Piotr Muller
“Putin is undoubtedly responsible for war crimes and he should be put to trial for the crime of aggression. I welcome the decision of the International Criminal Court."
— Czech Foreign Minister, Jan Lipavsky
Of course we know the galore of political posturing won’t be complete without an input from everyone’s favorite Uncle Sam; the lord of platitudes and champion of democracy.
“He clearly committed war crimes. I think it’s justified”
— Joe Biden
Now it doesn’t matter what your stance is on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the truth is that the actions of Putin has caused the deaths of countless lives. The same goes for the actions of Zelensky who has also engaged in activities that go against the Geneva conventions with regards to rules of engagement.
If you wanted to lump both of them together as war criminals, be my guest. The point is that for now, the ICJ has issued an arrest warrant against Putin. Whether or not it will do same to Zelensky is story for another day.
What I’m trying to say is that world leaders, in this case the US President, were not out of place for commending the actions of the ICJ; I mean, war criminals ought to be arrested and prosecuted for their crimes right?
Forward about a year later and the ICC, probably after a lot of internal pressure, issued an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
You know I was expecting crickets from the US government on this ruling. I was expecting them to quietly fade into the background and continue pulling the strings as usual.
What I never expected was straight up defense and rebuttal of the glaring evidence of crimes against humanity.
“Let me be clear, we reject the ICC’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas”
— Joe Biden
“Fuck the ICJ! Who are they to insist we can’t bomb children? I mean it’s not cool when Russia does it because Putler is a big meanie but come on…. we’re the good guys”
This reaction from the US could only have two possible meanings:
The US sees themselves as the ones with the global responsibility of determining what is good and bad. It’s only bad when it doesn’t involve them or their allies, otherwise it’s perfectly okay.
The US still doesn’t see the actions of Israel as wrong in any way. This would be horrifying if it’s the case although I seriously doubt it.