The authorities in Türkiye have hit their stride regarding international humanitarian law, a subject they are not always consistent about. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the defence minister Israel Katz, and others, are facing arrest warrants for genocide from the Istanbul Criminal Court of Peace. This is plucky, assertive, and undoubtedly, from the perspective of the Erdoğan government, stealing publicity. It also brings up that hoary old chestnut of parochial interest and the merits of the accuser.
A November 7 statement from the Istanbul chief public prosecutor’s office said that as many as 37 suspects were on the list, though not all were named. We know that it includes, in addition to Netanyahu and Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben–Gvir, the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, and Navy Commander David Saar Salama. They are charged under Article 77 (crimes against humanity) and Article 76 (genocide) of the Turkish Penal Code.
Reference is made to the March 21 bombing of the Turkish Palestinian Friendship Hospital, the October 17, 2023 attack on the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, the deliberate destruction of medical equipment by Israeli soldiers and the blockading of Gaza and the denial of humanitarian aid to the enclave. The October attack on the humanitarian Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters, and the seizure by Israeli forces of crew members is also mentioned.
This enterprise is not without problems. Türkiye is not particularly amenable to punishing genocide within the context of its own, strictly invigilated history. Such nationalistic, convenient laxity brings to mind George Orwell’s formidable argument made in the October 22, 1943 issue of The Tribune. Reviewing a work outlining the case for trying the Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini for war crimes, Orwell trawls through the record of hypocrisy among British figures who saw much merit in the skull cracking antics of Italy’s fascist leader – at least when things seemed rather rosy. He points out the hobbling problems of those making such accusations, given that a trial for Mussolini might well be justified alongside those of the then current Prime Minister Winston Churchill, or former Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and even the Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. When seeking to place leaders of a country in the dock, be careful what you wish for.
To this day, it is forbidden to describe the sadistic and opportunistic killing of Armenians within the proto-Turkish state that arose from the stricken body of the Ottoman Empire as genocidal. Power, as always, smudges the record.
Given that Turkish prosecutors are not coming to the table with sprightly, clean hands, any such move will cause not merely discomfort among human rights advocates but stabbing derision from political critics. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar was quick to take up the challenge, observing that “in Erdogan’s Turkey, the judiciary has long since become a tool for silencing political rivals and detaining journalists, judges and mayors.” This is not a charge Erdoğa can be easily acquitted of, given his successful efforts to bring the entire judiciary under the control of the executive branch. Independent judges and prosecutors have been imprisoned. Sympathetic Islamists and nationalists have swelled the ranks.
In the United States, guffawing pundits can be found aplenty, poking fun at Türkiye’s charges as “nonsense.” This remains stock practice in an imperium that adulates international law even while battering it, suggesting an often-schizophrenic approach. Michael Rubin, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, offers a case in point. Striking in his criticism of the Turkish effort, Rubin is worried about the implications of targeting democratically elected leaders for how they mistreat their own subjects. What of, say, violent acts and misdemeanours committed against India’s Muslim minorities? It becomes clear that Rubin assumes that leaders of democratic societies are above suspicion when it comes to human rights violations, while Islamic states are opportunistic and villainous. “The Indian government,” he broods, “should not ignore the outrage, for what Erdoğan targets Israel with today, he will apply to India tomorrow.”
Were Erdoğan successful in getting any Israeli into court, it would “only be a matter of time until he and his Pakistani, Qatari, and Malaysian allies try to do the same with democratically elected Indian leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and senior Indian diplomats and military officers as part of a similar ‘lawfare’ campaign to pursue their Kashmir and Khalistan ambitions.” (Notice the lazy bracketing of all these states.)
This is not to say that charges of genocide won’t fly. The International Court of Justice in The Hague is currently tasked with assessing Israel’s conduct in Gaza, alleged by South Africa’s submission to be genocidal in nature. While the judges have yet to reach a decision on the genocide question, they have made several provisional orders cautioning Israel to abide by the UN Genocide Convention. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory was somewhat bolder, asserting in itsSeptember 16 report that four of the five elements of genocide outlined in the Convention had been met by Israel’s ruthless waging of war in the Strip. Innumerable civil society and human rights organisations, including the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, have made similar findings.
Governments the world over often misuse international law as a pretext to attack their enemies. This effort by the Turkish court system might be seen as another play in the politicisation of human rights. But States and their legal organs can also exercise universal jurisdiction in punishing the most abhorrent of crimes – crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and torture. The other option, one stubbornly resisted by Israel, the United States and Türkiye, is becoming a party to the Rome Statute and International Criminal Court. In refusing to become parties to the statute, all three are, at least on that score, in violent agreement.
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“..In the United States, guffawing pundits can be found aplenty…”
Well may they guffaw! But what is the legal status of Biden and Trump and others, who both in turn supplied the Netanyahu regime with military hardware without which the IDF could not have performed its’ genocidal and destructive tasks both in Gaza and the occupied territory of the West Bank? Did money exchange hands, thereby enabling plausible deniability, or was this a calculated “gift”?
Sad, our futility, for we “little people” are well below the high settings of righteous violence and impunities of the big crushers, persons or nations. I have little respect for “law” as a concept, for humans make it and break it to suit. You and I could have been maimed and murdered legally under regimes and practices of Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, and now Netanhyahu and Trump. And, the five veto holding powers of the UNO Security Council are all descended from murder, uprising, rebellion, extreme illegalities and violence. Imperium is the legal right to enforce law, which one may create to suit. Let us cower.
At least one country is doing a good thing. Pity Australia is too scared.
Shame on us.
History WILL report on our failure to stand up for the 308000 babies bombed in Gaza!
STOPGENOCIDE
Well said Phil: Murphy’s First Law of Justice:
Laws are made to protect the interests of those who make the laws.
Abbie
Australia is a ‘State party to the Rome Statute of the ICC’ and as such we are legally obligated to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, which includes arresting and surrendering individuals for whom the ICC has issued an arrest warrant. This obligation is rooted in Article 86 of the Statute and should Netanyahu or any of his gang travel to Australia we are required to “cooperate fully with the Court” and arrest these individuals and transfer them to the jurisdiction of the Court.
It is not as though we are doing nothing but rather we are staying within the international rule of law. The principal rogue outlier in all this is the USA to their eternal shame.
The noose is gradually tightening on Netanyahu and restricting his ability to travel internationally: his day will come!
To Mediocrates, I refer to work of George Lichtheim who expertly wrote concerning the commentaries of Cicero, Tacitus, Livy and others. Caesar found that an army could make an “emperor”, (in effect) and later, could make and unmake one outside of Rome or of the limits of the old senate. So, eventually, oligarchy became supreme. Never mind us, the “people.”
Citing ‘Michael Rubin, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute’ Atlas Koch Network also includes anti-EU and anti-Ukraine Heritage Foundation.
The latter is partnered with Abbott’s workplace in Budapest, the Danube Institute supported by govt. & GONGOs of PM ‘mini Putin’ Orbán (also ally of Netanyahu & Trump).
Another fun fact, Erdoĝan’s people in his AKP helped set up and develop Hamas decades ago to ‘ride the democracy bus’; like Israel & Qatar had been funding Hamas in the more recent decade.
Why haven’t Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong, Mark Dreyfus and Richard Marles been referred to the ICC yet?
To Terry Mills
Thank you for your clear information on the ICC rules that Australia must follow. Just sad that the Govt I hankered for is not more forthcoming in declaring the vileness of Genocide in Gaza (and other nations). 308,000 children bombed should be condemned in our Parlt by our our PM.