International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan.
DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images
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DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan.
DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images
When thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded throughout Lebanon last week, it was a success for the planners of the attack.
Was it also a war crime, with dozens of people killed and some 3,000 people injured?
That type of question, along with all of the ensuing questions about whether to prosecute, how to prosecute, falls to Karim Khan, the lead prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, which was set up two decades ago to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity.
As for saying whether the attack constitutes a war crime, Khan says he can’t answer.
“I need to be very disciplined, in terms of what I say. We don’t have jurisdiction in relation to Lebanon. Lebanon is not a state party, unlike Palestine. We’re focusing on situations that are clearly, we say, within our jurisdiction.”
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Prosecuting the Israel/Hamas war
Back in May, the ICC applied for arrest warrants against leaders of Hamas, and Israeli leaders Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Last week, Israel’s foreign ministry filed a petition to appeal the warrant, and the foreign ministry says that the ICC failed to, “provide Israel with the opportunity to exercise its right to investigate by itself the claims raised by the prosecutor before proceeding.”
Does Khan agree with that assessment?
“Well, no is the short answer. I’ve said it repeatedly, publicly, that we’re investigating, only the crimes alleged against Hamas but also that Israel and leaders in Israel have responsibilities to comply with international law,” Khan told Consider This host Mary Louise Kelly.
“I was investigating, and there was no applications by Israel since 2021 until today. But we’ll deal with the filings in the normal way. It would only be right to respond first to the judges.”
Other major leaders have also criticized this move, namely President Biden, who has called the application for warrants against Israeli leaders ‘outrageous’ and said that they implied an equivalence between Hamas and Israel.
“You know, U.S. values make it clear that every individual has rights. The United States doesn’t say Hispanics or Blacks or whites or people from the East Coast or West Coast have different rights. I say the same thing,” Khan said.
“As an officer of the court, the umbrella of the law should apply equally. And I have just as much compassion for Kfir Bibas, who was a 10-month-old snatched from a kibbutz that I visited and taken by Hamas, as I do for children 10 months old or younger or older that have also died in Gaza.”
Looking at other global crises.
Last month, Khan addressed the U.N. Security Council regarding the civil war in Sudan that has also led to a humanitarian crisis involving starvation and mass death and displacement.
He said the ICC is not and never has been a silver bullet, and that to solve crises of the world, it requires the support of states. So what support is needed?
“After the horrors of the second world war, we gave a promise of never again. How do we build that confidence if there’s not a proper solution in Darfur? At the moment, people are being hunted down and killed because of the color of their skin and because of a sense of impunity that has built up over 20 years. We don’t have a police force. We don’t have military. We need states to live up to their responsibilities – that’s, first and foremost, Sudan,” Khan said.
“And then also, African Union, the United Nations and powerful states, including the United States of America, the European Union – everybody should care that the allegations are so horrendous of famine, of starvation, of rape on a big scale. We need that support in terms of enforcement, and we haven’t seen it,” he added.
This episode was produced by Megan Lim and Vincent Acovino, with audio engineering by Neil Tevault, with help from Ted Mebane and David Greenburg. It was edited by Tinbete Ermyas, Nick Spicer, Patrick Jarenwattananon and Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.