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    • ICC’s Karim Khan denies allegations of double standards against Israel
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    ICC’s Karim Khan denies allegations of double standards against Israel

    Online Niel Posted on

    ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan defended his decision to file warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of the Israeli leadership in an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegelpublished last week.

    At a meeting with journalists from Nurembergwhere Nazis were tried for crimes they committed during the Holocaust nearly 80 years earlier, Khan commented: “The International Criminal Court is a child of Nuremberg.”

    Continuing to draw inspiration from the history of Germany and European Jewry, Khan argued: “We have failed to live up to the ‘Never Again’ promise that was made at Nuremberg – adding: ‘People around the world are crying, I am not in agony. only in Palestine and Israel.”

    After referencing Israel and the Palestinian territories, Khan was asked if Netanyahu’s accusations of anti-Semitism had any effect on Khan.

    NUREMBERG TRIALS: Allied-occupied International Military Tribunal Judges’ Bench v. 1945-1946. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

    “I’m not that skinny,” Khan replied. “There is a lot of abuse, threats and games between political leaders, intelligence agencies and interest groups. But I know who I am.”

    “The first time I went to a synagogue was with my late father and mother when I was about six in Leeds. Last year, I gave the Elie Wiesel lecture in Ottawa. I don’t think the Raoul Wallenberg Center would have invited an anti-Semite to give such an important lecture. The Jewish religion is the great teaching of the prophet Moses, and I have great respect for the Jewish people and the Jewish faith.”

    “We are seeing an increased tendency to marginalize people simply by labeling them as anti-Semitic. Frankly, I think what is more worrying is what the victims expect from the law and their demand that the law be applied equally across the globe.”

    Khan explained that his predecessor left him in charge of investigating the Palestinian territories, but no resources could be spared until the October 7 Hamas attacks on southern Israel, which saw the terrorists invade from Gaza and slaughter more than 1,200 innocent Israelis and take hostages over 250 people.

    “My predecessor opened an investigation three months before he left. I came without a team and without resources, but I still tried to move forward,” defended Khan. “Then came the events of October 7, a terrible hemorrhage for the Jewish people. But the response of the Israeli government has also raised the alarm – and not just for me, but also for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Food Programme.”

    Without addressing the ongoing hostage crisis, Khan continued to criticize the lack of movement toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

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    “With the exception of Canada, every other member state of the ICC has accepted the State of Palestine as a state party. The judges, after analyzing the matter, said that we have jurisdiction,” he said. “The question should be: Why shouldn’t we investigate? Is it right for a certain geographic region to be outlawed? Do Palestinians and Israelis not deserve the same legal protection as the people of Ukraine, Sudan or the Rohingya?

    When asked about the ICC’s double standards for not investigating Britain’s acts of torture during the Iraq war, Khan replied that it was ahead of its time. “Unfortunately, crimes are committed in every jurisdiction of the world. Our job is to make sure there is no free pass. Palestine is a state party to the ICC. What we have done is a jurisdictional function,” he insisted, declining to comment on cases before 2021.

    Despite Khan’s insistence that there were no free passes, Der Spiegel reporters noted that one of Khan’s first actions was to suspend investigations into US activities in Afghanistan. Khan denied this, arguing that the investigation had been “deprioritised”, not suspended.

    “I simply made a decision based on my resources that I would pay more attention to ongoing violations than historical ones — such as the activities of the Taliban or the Islamic State in Khorasan,” he argued. “It is not the case that anyone has received a certificate of immunity.”

    Noting the criticism surrounding Khan’s decision to seek warrants against Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the same time as the Hamas leadership, Der Spiegel asked if it was “wise” to give the impression of equating “democratically elected politicians with terrorists”.

    Failing to respond to the criticism, Khan stated: “Every victim is equal. I have as much consideration, care and love for a Jewish child as I do for a Palestinian child or any other person anywhere in the world, regardless of skin color, religion, age or sexual orientation.”

    Der Spiegel Reporters later said Russian President Vladimir Putin was able to visit ICC member Mongolia without recourse.

    “Once I concluded that the evidence warranted arrest warrants — for Hamas members and for Israeli officials — I was compelled to move forward. I would ask your readers to think about what the alternative could have been,” Khan said.

    Asked what the alternative might have been, Khan replied: “Imagine if I only applied for an arrest warrant for Israeli citizens. People would say: What a fanatic. How anti-Semitic. He refuses to enforce the October 7th Abominable Acts Act, killing children and taking Holocaust survivors hostage. If I had moved against the members of Hamas, imagine me saying: What a disrespectful court in the pocket of the US, Germany and all these powerful countries.

    “What about the 30,000 or 40,000 dead people in Gaza, mothers giving birth to dead children, starvation and starvation? So those who accuse me of equating Israel with Hamas should ask themselves: What were the options? Or is there a complaint that the law is blind and we have independent courts?”

    As Israel pursues the end of Hamas’ rule over the Gaza Strip and the return of the 101 remaining hostages over the past year, Hamas-run health ministries have claimed that more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. The figure provided does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. As Israel’s supporters have repeatedly noted, Israel has been responsible for a remarkably low number of civilian casualties compared to similar conflicts.

    When asked why the ICC, intended as a last resort, should intervene when Israel has a functioning judicial system, Khan replied: “Israel has very capable lawyers and judges. The question is: does the law apply in the occupied territories? If you read what the experts write and look at what is happening on the ground, we don’t see investigations. We don’t see responsibility. Again, what’s the complaint? Is it simply that there should not be justice because a country is an ally?”

    Khan continued to defend the timing of the warrants, telling reporters: “Should I wait until they’re all dead? If your father, your mother, your grandfather were held hostage, would you really want to wait? If this was your baby or your heartbroken sister, would you want me to wait? We should not indulge ourselves in thinking that people’s suffering is something to comment on in the future. The law must be felt in real time. If you’re a firefighter, you don’t wait until the house is on fire and the neighborhood is on fire.”

    Allegations against Karim Khan

    While Khan continues to investigate the allegations, the ICC has launched its own against him following reports of sexual misconduct. The governing body of the CPI will launch a an external investigation into its chief prosecutor Karim Khan for alleged sexual misconducttwo sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

    The alleged victim is a respected 30-year-old lawyer who worked directly for Khan, according to the report The Guardian. Documents seen by the British newspaper show an allegation of unwanted touching by Khan and “abuse” from April 2023 to April 2024.

    In one incident listed in the document seen by The GuardianKhan allegedly “pushed his tongue” into the woman’s ear, and a source reported incidents of groping. The alleged victim also told colleagues that Khan tried to hold her hand during a trip to London.

    During another business trip, according to whistleblower documents seen by The Associated Press, Khan allegedly asked the woman to lie down with him in his hotel bed and then “sexually touched her.” He allegedly later knocked on her hotel room door for 10 minutes at 3am.

    While Khan’s office was repeatedly targeted with threats and misinformation, the alleged victim was reluctant to make a formal complaint – instead, alarm bells were raised by colleagues.

    Two employees reported the alleged harassment weeks before Khan announced he was seeking warrants against Netanyahu, the Associated Press reported.

    “She never wanted any of this,” said a person close to her. “But the complaint filed against her wishes, followed by Khan’s denials and attempts to suppress the allegations, has forced her into a very difficult position.”



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