Israel to ask US to protect it from ICC war crimes investigation

TEL AVIV (Agencies): Israel will ask US President Joe Biden’s administration for the White House’s continued cooperation on efforts to thwart anti-Israel moves by the International Criminal Court.

Israel Hayom has learned that Israel’s first request on that front will be to coordinate the selection of the ICC’s next chief prosecutor in the coming weeks.

Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who has served in that role for the last nine years, is set to step down in the coming weeks. In recent years, she and the ICC have been the target of US sanctions under former US President Donald Trump, following her decision to investigate whether the US and Israel committed war crimes in the war in Afghanistan and 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, respectively.

At the time, US Secre-tary of State Mike Pompeo said Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko, head of The Hague court’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity, and Cooperation Division, were sanctioned over the court’s “illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction.”

In his executive order, Trump made clear the move was also aimed at protecting Israel.

Biden and his administration have yet to publicly state their position on the ICC. Under former US President Barack Obama’s term, during which Biden served as vice president, the US refrained from joining the court due to the perceived threat it posed to American security forces.

Unlike her predecessors at the ICC who largely investigated war crimes in the developing world, Bensouda has said all crimes against humanity must be investigated and has looked into war crimes allegedly perpetrated by American and British soldiers.

In Israel’s case, Benso-uda instructed the Palestin-ians how to be accepted to the court, advanced complaints lodged by the Palestinians, and rejected all claims informally submitted by Israel.