The self-inflicted demise of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan met with Mahmoud Abbas, “President of the State of Palestine,” at the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2024.International Criminal Court Twitter-X account)

The idea of ​​creating an International Criminal Court to prosecute the world’s worst criminals who committed the worst crimes was a noble undertaking. After the Holocaust, Israel and Jews were among the leading advocates for the establishment of such a court. In practice, however, the ICC has been a colossal failure. Because of the actions of the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, and his predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, the court as an institution is now finding itself at ever-deeper lows.

Former ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda was clearly anti-Israel. She was the one who developed the ICC law enforcement theory of a non-existent “State of Palestine.” She urged the court to assume jurisdiction it does not have to set the boundaries, de novoof the non-existent state. She was also the one who officially adopted the Palestinian narrative about Israel’s actions and claimed that Israeli officials had committed serious wrongdoings.

Bensouda was quite lenient towards the Palestinians, focusing mainly on the actions of the recognized terrorists. However, she had a saving grace.

In her report on preliminary investigative activities (2019), Bensouda noted, among other things, that the prosecutor’s office had also received allegations that “by providing payments to the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Authority encouraged and financially incentivized the commission of violence.” Families of Palestinians who were particularly involved in attacks against Israeli citizens, and under the circumstances, the payment of such scholarships could lead to crimes under the Rome Statute.”

Bensouda was, of course, referring to the Palestinian Authority’s terrorist pay-for-slay policy. The decades-old policy consists of two elements: a) paying monthly compensation to injured terrorists and the families of killed terrorists; and b) paying monthly salaries to terrorists arrested by Israel. Although the two elements are technically separate, their common goal is to promote and encourage participation in terrorist attacks and to ensure the payment of a financial reward as a reward for participation in terrorist attacks.

While the payment of compensation to injured terrorists and the families of dead terrorists is mandated by the internal policy of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the payment of salaries to detained and released terrorists is stipulated in a Palestinian Authority law – the Prisoners and Terrorists Law Released Prisoners No. 19 of 2004 – and accompanying PA Government Regulations. The Palestinian Authority spends an estimated one billion shekels each year to pay for these terror bounties, according to analysts and commentators.

The Palestinian Authority does not hide the payments that reward terror. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has openly stated on the world stage and in the PA media that even if the PA had only a penny left 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 sponsored the original PA law. In 2006, Abbas approved regulations codifying the monthly salaries of PA terrorists incarcerated in Israeli prisons. He also codified the practice of securing jobs in Palestinian Authority facilities for released terrorists. In 2010, he approved a salary increase for terrorist prisoners, including a 300% increase, from 4,000 shekels per month to 12,000 shekels per month for prisoners serving more than 30 years, i.e. murderers.

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

Evidence supporting and substantiating the claim that the Palestinian Authority’s terror reward policy encourages, incentivizes and rewards Palestinian participation is abundant. But instead of pursuing the real terrorists like Mahmoud Abbas, current prosecutor Khan is too busy wasting the prosecutor’s and court’s time and resources and inventing baseless claims against Israeli leaders.

While reports at the time suggested that Bensouda was working closely with the Palestinian leadership and representatives of the other Palestinian terrorist groups, Khan has now taken the ICC to a new low.

A post on the ICC’s X account (formerly Twitter) included images of Khan’s meeting with terror activist Abbas.

Instead of calling Abbas the prime suspect in a multibillion-dollar program to promote and reward terror and the murder of Jews, a program that even the Nazis did not have, the court’s caption said: “At #UNGA79, #ICC Prosecutor @KarimKhanQC met with HE Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine. Strengthening dialogue and cooperation is central to supporting independent prosecutorial investigations.”

How can Khan and the court claim to be “strengthening the dialogue and cooperation that is central to supporting independent investigations” when Khan has actively abandoned the most important and clear-cut investigation and is meeting so cordially with a key suspect?

Despite the high hopes and aspirations that the ICC would finally bring justice to the victims and punishment of the world’s worst war criminals, with people like Khan in central positions, the ICC is unfortunately falling into deeper and deeper decay and, regrettably, contributing to its own suicide.

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