"While the world's attention is focused on the Western settlement with Iran, the International Criminal Court in The Hague announced a decision on July 16 that plants its own marker in the Middle East. The ruling by the Pre-Trial Chamber instructed the ICC prosecutor to reconsider her decision not to prosecute Israelis for the violence associated with Israel's May 2010 seizure of the Mavi Marmara, when that ship sought to challenge Israel's naval blockade of Gaza...
The case was remarkable and disturbing for many reasons...
The most remarkable aspect of the opinion, however, was the court's own analysis of 'gravity.' The court argued that the prosecutor was wrong to minimize the 'gravity' of the episode. It was 'simplistic' for the prosecutor to claim that 'the identified crimes' had 'insufficient gravity' given 'the international concern caused by the events at issue which . . . resulted in several fact-finding missions, including by the U.N. Human Rights Council.' In effect, the court argued that if Israel is denounced by the U.N. Human Rights Council, the ICC prosecutor should see herself as its designated enforcement arm...
This case came to the Pre-Trial Chamber while the prosecutor was already investigating potential crimes connected with the IDF's attacks on Gaza last summer. The ruling says to the prosecutor: Don't dare abandon that case or you'll have to answer to the judges.
This ruling is therefore a worrisome portent. It seems to say, give no benefit of the doubt to the actions of a democratic state, which operates under the rule of law. It seems to say, give no weight to the urgency of defending against rocket attacks and terror tunnels. It seems to say, don't worry about seeming to side with angry mobs whipped up by Islamist demagogues-it's the prosecutor's job to give satisfaction to those mobs.
Maybe the prosecutor will resist these messages. Maybe later panels of judges will view things differently. But so far, this ruling confirms the longstanding prediction that the ICC would follow the path of most other U.N. organs in cases concerning Israel. At U.N. forums, one-sided denunciations of Israel are regarded as basic professional courtesy..."