From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Wednesday, May twenty two. Brittany Higgins and her former boss, Senator Linda Reynolds are headed for court. Reynolds is suing Higgins and her fiance David Schiraz for defamation over social media posts. Mediation talks between the two parties broke down on Tuesday, meaning the trial will go ahead in July.
It's time for them to admit they got it wrong.
Almost a million Australians are relying on welfare and it's mostly younger people who need the help. New research shows a third of small businesses struggle to cover costs and bills. That story is live right now at the Australian dot com dot au. Completely unjustified. That's the assessment by The Australians Foreign editor Greg Sheridan of a decision by the International Criminal Court to seek arrest warrants for leaders of both Israel and Hamas. That's today's episode. Did you know
Vladimir Putin is a wanted man? In March twenty twenty three, a panel of judges issued an arrest warrant for two Russian individuals, Vladimir Vladimirvich Putin and Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Alexeyevna Levova Belova. They're accused of forcibly deporting tens of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia and having them adopted by Russian families in what Ukraine says is a giant brainwashing exercise.
And moved to camps in Russia or Belarus, says the start of the war. Officially, the Ukrainian government has documented more than nineteen thousand children taken by Russia, but told us they worry the actual number could be closer to three hundred thousand.
These warrants were issued in March twenty twenty three by something called the International Criminal Court. That's a division of the United Nations. It doesn't have a police force or any prisons, but it has one hundred and twenty four countries, including Australia, who've signed up to respect its rulings, and that means potentially arresting any fugitives and sending them off to the ICC to be prosecuted. The warrants were greeted by the Kremlin as a bit of a joke, but
an offensive joke. A spokesman for Putin said the warrants were outrageous and unacceptable, but would be meaningless as Russia
didn't recognize the ICC's jurisdiction. Vladimir Putin has carried on the war in Ukraine and the brutal repression of dissent in Russia with apparent unconcern, and now the ICC is back in the news announcing that one of its prosecutors is seeking warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin et Yahoo and senior figures in Hamas, the organization that rules the Gaza Strip.
Prosecuting Hamas is just, in my view, a pathetic effort to demonstrate a completely fraudulent even handedness.
Greg Sheridan is The Australian's foreign editor, as you can hear, is pretty fired up about this, the fact that the ICC is announcing proceedings against Hamas a terror group and Israel a democracy at the same time.
They're saying, yes, of course, we're fanning the flames of global anti Semitism and were insanely prosecuting the democratically elected leader of a parliamentary democracy with a full judicial system. But you can't accuse us of bias because we're also bravely, at this very same time issuing a prosecution and an arrest warrant for the leader of the most thirsty, sadistic, sexually depraved terrorist group that exists on the face of
the planet at the moment. Even issuing these prosecutions simultaneously is just grotesque political symbolism. It has nothing at all to do with law, nothing at all to do with prosecution, and honestly, the idea that any of these Hummas leaders is going to end up being a subject to a trial in the Hague by the International Criminal Court is just preposterous nonsense. Nor are the Israeli leaders either. This is just political symbolism in a war by the United
Nations bureaucracy against Israel. It's a day of infamy for the International Criminal Court. As Joe Biden said, let me be clear, we reject the ICC's application for resta warrants against as well as an whatever these warriors may imply. There's no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. And it's a sad thing that our own Prime Minister won't take the same position as Joe Biden or Richard Sumac or so
many of our other allies. Well, I don't comment on court processes in Australia, let alone court processes globally, of which Australia is not a party.
On Tuesday, Opposition leader Peter Dutton offered his appraisal of Albanese's comments.
Now, I don't know why the Prime minist is not showing leadership at the moment on the economy, he's not showing leadership in relation to anti Semitism, and he's tarnishing and damaging our international relationships with like minded nations when he's not strong enough to stand up alongside President Biden.
Nisanyahu and his foreign minister, you are gallant are accused by the ICC prosecutor of war crimes, including deliberately starving the population of Gaza, and the Hamas officials, including the fugitive leaders Yaya Sinoa and Muhammadif, are accused of masterminding the slaughter, rape, kidnapping, and torture of civilians in Israel in Hamas's October seven attack.
The International Criminal Court is meant to prosecute individuals for war crimes or crimes against humanity. Its jurisdiction only applies to the one hundred and twenty four countries who signed up to the so called Rome Statute. It is also supposed to only prosecute someone when there is no credible national legal process and when whatever national legal process there is is exhausted. I think it is a body which has very limited credibility and has not been very effective.
Here's icc prosecutor, Kareem Khan.
I have reasonable grounds to believe that three senior leaders of Hamas Yaya Sinwah Muhamma Daif and Ishmael Haniah bad criminal responsibility for the following international crimes committed on the territory of Israel and the State of Palestine from at least the seventh of October twenty twenty three. Extermination as a crime against humanity, murder as a crime against humanity, and as a war crime.
So there's no doubt that Hamas is guilty of shocking war crimes or shocking crimes against humanity. I'm in the rape and mutilation and murder of the innocent civilians on October seven. Now it claims that Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war. Well, that seems to be
patently ridiculous. It's against the facts Now, you can certainly be critical of Israel, say that you know there are things that could have done better, but it has certainly made an effort not to kill civilians in waging a war against an enemy which attacked it and broke a cease fire to do so, and which hides among civilians.
What Greg's talking about is the vast tunnel network under densely populated areas of Gaza like Dir el Bala. It's believed Ya Yasinwa and Muhammadif are currently sheltering in those tunnels. Israel admits its military goals to eliminate himasas senior leaders and destroy the tunnel network have resulted in devastating civilian casualties. Hamas puts the body count at well over thirty thousand, but that doesn't make clear how many are civilians and how many militants.
Why have they chosen Benjamin net Nyahu and yoe'v Golant because the ICC, like most of the UN system, suffers a very serious, twisted, unhealthy obsession with Israel and hatred of Israel. You know, every year the United Nations General Assembly passes more resolutions against Israel than it does against all the other countries of the world combined. So you know, forget North Korea or anything that's happening in Yemen or whatever, or China, all the human rights violations in the world
are apparently carried out by Israel. Well, it's just patently absurd.
He is Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
What a travesty of justice, what a disgrace the prosecutor who is absurd charges against me and Israel's defense minister. I'm merely an attempt to deny Israel the basic right of self defense, and I assure you one then this attempt will utterly fail.
The whole U N system is politically corrupted, full of ideology, extremely undemocratic, not really consistent in its view of human rights. The U and often will have a women's rights medi headed by Saudi Arabia, a human rights committee headed by China, nuclear non Proliferation committee headed by Syria or North Korea or something. It's often farcical, and the International Criminal Court
bears the same character. I think, and every so often Western democratic nations walk away from these institutions.
The best coverage of the Middle East is at Viaustralian dot com dot Au twenty four seven you can be the first to know by joining us subscribers at the Australian dot com dot au. While I've got you, there's a great new podcast by our friends at cod Sports called En Route to Paris. They've got sporting superstars from Arianne Tiitmas to Sally Fitzgibbons and Harry Garside and it's the perfect way to get across all the sports you'll need to be an expert in by July when the
games kick off. Find en Route to Paris. Wherever you got this podcast, we'll be back after this break.
I have reasonable grounds to believe, on the basis of evidence collected and examined by my office, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Jav Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the following international crimes committed on the territory of the State of Palestine from at least the eighth of October twenty twenty three. The crimes include starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.
Why do you think starvation has been chosen as the war crime that Israel is accused of, greg given that we've seen a bombardment, we've seen a siege, we've seen aerial attacks. There's a lot of things that one could accuse Israel or if one was minded to do so, well, I.
Don't think so, because war is a violent business, but states are allowed to wage war in their own self defense. Australia has been to war many times. It's a very very violent business and states are entitled to be very violent in the prosecution of a just war within the laws of war. It's wrong to suggest that the Israeli justice system would not look at an issue of starvation if that were at all credible. It's not remotely credible. Hundreds of thousands of tons of food Aid have gone
into Gaza facilitated by Israel. At the moment, Gaza's border with Egypt is closed, So if the ICC wanted to prosecute someone for starving Gaza, it could prosecute Egypt because it won't allow AID to go into Gaza. Why would the ICC move so quickly when the whole idea of the ICC is that it only moves if normal national jurisdictions have failed, Well, they will be. I can guarantee it a thousand judicial reviews of this war within Israel,
because that's what democracies do. Israel's a twenty four character democracy, that's what it will do. But of course, if Israel actually was starving a population, that would be a war crime. But there is just no evidence of this whatsoever. In fact, AID shipments when they've gone in, have been stolen by Hummas. They've been attacked by Hummas, the AID crossing points have been attacked by Hamas. No one has made it more
difficult for AID to get into Palestinians than Hamas. And of course the moral responsibility for the whole thing rest with Hummas.
So let's look at that argument the other way Greek. If the ICC is supposed to act where local legal processes are absent, that applies to Hamas, doesn't it. There are no gars and courts that are going to prosecute Hermas leaders well.
Of course, the prosecution of Hamas is justified, but the International Criminal Court doesn't generally prosecute terrorist groups. Of course, there won't be a legal process against Tummas unless Israel conducts it. But the ICC isn't taking any action against Tummas. The ISC is the last thing that would travel Hummas on the list of Hamas's enemies, internal and external. The
ISC would rank about fivey twelve or something. The Israelis, according to the U S Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln and the British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, were offering an extremely generous ceasepire. Those were the words of Blincoln and Cameron, not the words of the Israelis. And all Hummas had to do to secure this sea spire was to release
thirty three breathing Israeli hostages. They refused to do so, so the International Criminal Court apparently demands that Israel simply has to surrender to Hamas, and it's not allowed to wage war against Hamas, but Hamas can wage war at candat Israel. It's a preposterous non sequitur. The prosecution makes no sense except in the context of a worldview which sees Israel as inherently an illegitimate state and therefore everything it does is essentially illegitimate.
Greg Sheridan is The Australian's Foreign editor. Thanks for joining us on the front. We'll be back tomorrow and in the meantime you can check out Australia's Best Journalism twenty four to seven at Vaustralian dot com dot au.