Honorable Judges of the ICC
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands

Dear Judges:

Re: Prosecutor Karim Kahn's Request for Israeli and Palestinian Arrest Warrants on May 20, 2024

Throughout recorded history, tribes and nations have savagely murdered, tortured and stolen from each other with impunity. The most powerful, ruthless, and cunning of humans have always won. Loyal group members and citizens typically pledge allegiance to their charismatic, father-figure rulers, celebrate their victories, and honor their compatriot fighting forces as heroic, as did the Macedonians hail Alexander the Great and the Germans heil Hitler.

Then in 1945 and 1946 the Nuremberg Tribunal and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East changed the course of our barbaric history by applying civil laws, which emanated from the Quaran, the Bible, the Veda and the Tanakh to those who committed atrocious, horrific War Crimes in WW2. Then on July 1, 2002, the International Criminal Court became the very first established Court of International Law entrusted with the sacred and supreme duty of bringing all those responsible for committing Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes, and Crimes Against Peace to Justice. The Dawn of the Rule of Law over the Rule of Violent Power had arisen on the World’s stage just in time to bring some measure of hope and relief to the traumatized Palestinians.

As of August 15, 2024, in this most savage of sieges on Gaza by Israeli forces since the Nakba in 1948, all major news outlets report that at least 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. Previous reports claim that more than 15,000 were children and another 21,000 missing. The number of wounded has mounted to more than 100,000. Since October 7th, there have been hundreds of attacks on healthcare facilities, which rendered most of them inoperable. There is now widespread famine, disease and homelessness.

Peter Oborne reports from Hebron: "It is the same story in every village in the South Hebron Hills. Israeli settlers are seizing livestock, wrecking water tanks, smashing solar panels, bulldozing outbuildings and destroying the olive groves upon which Palestinian farmers depend for their livelihood. They arrive unannounced armed with M16 machine guns which they are more than happy to use. They beat up villagers with iron bars, with sticks, with fists, with the butts of their guns. They assault women and the elderly. They enter Palestinian houses ripping out fixtures and fittings, stealing money, destroying papers, overturning furniture. They shoot to kill. Many wear a military uniform. They have imposed a reign of terror. They are supported by Israel’s army. Their message to Palestinians is always the same: get out or be killed. While the armed settlers act with impunity, Palestinians are defenceless.“ 1.

Palestinian property in the occupied territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank house 700,000 Israelis. It is our understanding that these settlements are in violation of the UN Security Resolution 242. 2.

Although the Court cannot investigate crimes committed before 2014, historical events set the stage for the current war on Gaza. The arbitrary UN Partition Resolution of 1947 arrogated 56% of Palestinian land to the Zionists for the creation of a Jewish State. The Palestinians naturally rejected the resolution because it did not include any provisions for their civil or human rights. The newly anointed Israelis knew they would have to take the appropriated land by force, so they prepared well for the initial onslaught. Palestinians call that first invasion the Nakba or Catastrophe, which resulted in ethnic cleansing.3. Zionist militias brutally raped and molested women and girls; slaughtered men, women, and children; sacked 500 villages; and drove out 750,000 Arab and Muslim human beings from their homes, property, and livelihoods.4.

The quality of life for Palestinians has been very poor, with little peace or stability since 1947. The wealthy, U.S.-backed, and nuclear-armed Israelis have fought war after war for supremacy and the acquisition of more and more land, while the Palestinians have defended themselves mostly with rocks, burning kites, balloons and tires, homemade rockets, and starkly tragic human suicide bombers. For 70 years they have: suffered the most appalling living conditions imposed upon them by the military occupation and apartheid rule; peacefully resisted the unabated illegal settlements upon their land (at least 80% has been seized since the Nakba); withstood the blockade of Gaza and survived genocidal assaults.5. Since 1947, the Palestinians have steadfastly and peacefully fought for their safety, dignity, freedoms, and Right of Return proclaimed by the UN General Assembly Resolution 194 passed in 1948. The Right of Return, to include damages and compensation, was deemed their inalienable right in Resolution 3236 passed in 1974. 6..

Nevertheless, we understand that only alleged crimes that have been reported since June of 2014 may be investigated by the ICC starting with Operation Protective Edge launched on July 8, 2014 against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. By August 25, the IDF had killed 2,076 Palestinians including 525 children.7. In all 10,224 were injured and Gaza was left in ruins. One teen, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, was abducted and burned alive.8.

Starting March 30, 2018, at the heavily blockaded Gaza border, IDF snipers used live fire and tear gas, a chemical weapon banned in warfare, on Palestinians peacefully protesting on a weekly basis for their Right of Return. As of August 17, 2018, records indicate that more than 18,000 have been seriously injured and at least 166 killed.9.On June 13, 2018 the UN General Assembly adopted a draft resolution condemning the use of excessive force by Israeli troops on the Palestinian civilians during the protests.10.

Crimes Against Humanity, as listed by the UN, are serious and systematic crimes against civilian populations to include: murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer, unlawful deprivation of liberty, torture, rape and other serious sexual violence, collective persecution, enforced disappearances, apartheid and other similar inhumane acts causing suffering and serious injury. 11.

In the words of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan on October 29, 2023 in his address to journalists after visiting the Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, he cited the Crimes Against Humanity, named the suspected perpetrators and pledged to bring justice because “There are no children of a lesser God, and that the Holy Quran states that when you are killing one innocent, you are killing all of humanity. Justice is every child’s birthright.” 12.

We, the undersigned implore you to keep Prosecutor Khan's promise to all the traumatized, suffering and grieving victims with integrity, bravery, and honor in the face of great pressure from the all the powerful elites who benefit from the genocide of the Palestinians at the bloody hands of the inhumane, vicious and criminal Zionists in Israel! We are hoping and praying with all people of conscience and compassion for the ICC to use its momentous authority, unimpeded, to establish and preserve peace and justice throughout the world, most urgently and speedily for the slaughtered and dispossessed human beings of Palestine.

The Court of World Opinion has reviewed all the evidence in person and on social media and found the Israeli Zionists guilty of Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes of Aggression and Crimes Against Humanity many years ago, starting with the Nakba in 1948. We are greatly dismayed and disappointed that the ICC has yet to make even one arrest, especially since you opened your preliminary investigation in 2014.

"In this critical moment, the world expects the Court to act — not merely to reaffirm its values, but to issue the long-overdue arrest warrants. The 93 states that have publicly pledged to defend the ICC against external interference signal that the world stands behind the Court. It is now up to the Chamber itself to demonstrate its resolve. As Gaza Victims have powerfully reminded us, “justice delayed is justice denied”. The time to act is now." 13.

Thank you for courageously standing up to the pressure, threats and outright blackmail from Israel, the US and others! Issuance of the arrest warrants will bring justice not only to the suffering and deceased Palestinians at long last, but to all of humanity dominated by criminal brutality. Without justice, brutality prevails.

References:

1. Peter Oborne, Illegal "Settlers’ Reign of Terror in the West Bank" Consortium News, November 9, 2023 https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/09/illegal-settlers-reign-of-terror-in-the-west-bank/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=2d4744a3-55f7-499c-81d6-05e96a88957d

2. OHCHR, Press Release March 28, 2023 https://www.un.org/unispal/document/human-rights-council-hears-that-700000-israeli-settlers-are-living-illegally-in-the-occupied-west-bank-meeting-summary-excerpts/

3. Ilan Pappe’, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine", One World Publications, 2006 Oxford, England.

4. Dana Visalli, "A Brief History of Palestine and Israel Explains Everything" Global Research, March 13, 2018

7. "Operation Protective Edge: What happened, why, and what now?" American Friends
Services Committee

8. Kareem Khadder, Samira Said and Susanna Capelouto, " Palestinian teen burned alive autopsy shows " CNN, July 5, 2014

9. "Gaza protests: All the latest updates," Aljazeera, August 17, 2018

10. Michelle Nichols, “United Nations condemns excessive Israeli force against Palestinians” Reuters, June 13, 2018 < https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1J935D>

11. UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/crimes-against-humanity.shtml

12. "ICC Prosecutor Speaks in Cairo on the situation in Israel and Palestine," October 29, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHyxpHiM1KA

13. https://opiniojuris.org/2024/10/11/delays-interference-and-espionage-the-iccs-struggle-with-arrest-warrants-in-the-situation-in-the-state-of-palestine/