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The Case Against the International Criminal Court Investigating Israel

(Gatestone Institute) Alan M. Dershowitz - The Palestinian decision to bring Israeli leaders before the ICC seeks to create a false moral equivalence between a vibrant democracy that is governed by the rule of law; and a loose assortment of groups - Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others - that do not accept the results of elections, that murder dissenters with no semblance of due process, and that allow its official media organs to incite violence against civilians based on their religion. It also seeks to create a false moral equivalence between an army that seeks to defend its civilians from rocket attacks, suicide bombers and terror tunnels; and a terrorist group that murders civilians in their beds, kidnaps and kills children, and targets civilians from behind human shields. The principle of "complementarity" precludes an ICC investigation of Israel unless "there are no genuine national investigations of the crimes committed under its jurisdiction." There is no country in the world with a legal system that is more responsive to claims made by victims of war crimes. If it were to be ruled that the Israeli legal system does not provide the required complementarity to deny the ICC institution jurisdiction as "a court of last resort," then no nation would pass that test.
2015-01-30 00:00:00
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