Amal Clooney Reveals Why She Supports Netanyahu Arrest Warrant

In an opinion column in the Financial Times on Monday, Amal Clooney signed on with five other experts in international law by stating their case in favor of International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutions against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas military commanders.

The ICC's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, confirmed to CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday that the court is seeking warrants on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity surrounding the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Clooney, a world-renowned human rights lawyer who has worked on a number of serious global conflicts and is married to actor George Clooney, was named among the experts who advised the ICC in seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

The ICC is also seeking warrants for Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as two other top Hamas leaders—Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' political leader.

In the column published Monday, Clooney and the panel of international law experts said they came to a unanimous agreement that are "reasonable grounds" to believe the leaders of both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes.

"The Panel unanimously agrees with the prosecutor's conclusion that there are reasonable grounds to believe that three of Hamas' most senior leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of civilians, the taking of at least 245 hostages and acts of sexual violence committed against Israeli hostages. The Panel also unanimously agrees that the evidence presented by the prosecutor provides reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Israel's minister of defense Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. This includes the war crime of intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the murder and persecution of Palestinians as crimes against humanity. Our reasons for reaching these conclusions are set out in our legal report."

The Financial Times column was also signed by Lord Justice Fulford, Judge Theodor Meron, Barrister Danny Friedman, Baroness Helena Kennedy and Elizabeth Wilmshurst, former deputy legal adviser at the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The panel was also assisted by two academic advisers.

The panel called the ICC's announcement a "milestone in the history of international criminal law."

In a statement on the Clooney Foundation for Justice homepage, Clooney explained how the panel came to its conclusions.

"I served on this panel because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives. The law that protects civilians in war was developed more than 100 years ago and it applies in every country in the world regardless of the reasons for a conflict," she wrote. "As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child's life has less value than another's. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law. So I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine."

Newsweek reached out to Clooney for further comments via email to the Clooney Foundation for Justice on Monday afternoon.

The international law panel's full report can be viewed here.

In a statement released shortly after the news broke, Khan said he was "grateful for the advice" given to him by a panel of experts.

Israel and Hamas have been locked in a war after Hamas, a Palestinian militant group, attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Much of Gaza has since been razed in strikes from Israel, with many of its 2.3 million residents displaced.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its strikes, according to The Associated Press, citing Gaza health officials. Israeli officials say that roughly 1,200 people were killed in the initial Hamas attack, during which a further 253 people were taken hostage.

The United States is a top ally of Israel, but the White House has become increasingly critical of Netanyahu's military strikes on Gaza. Israel has also faced pressure from the international community. Several celebrities have spoken out on the conflict while others have opted to forgo public discussion of the matter.

Anne Herzberg, legal adviser of the pro-Israeli NGO Monitor, condemned the decision to pursue Israeli officials, branding it "abhorrent."

"While it is unlikely any Israeli would ever appear before this kangaroo court, this case represents yet again the exploitation of international institutions in service of malevolent agendas," she said in a statement to Newsweek.

Meanwhile, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the nonprofit Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), told Newsweek in a statement, "The arrest warrants for Israeli and Palestinian officials is a milestone in accountability in the face of decades of impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine."

An ICC panel will now consider Khan's application for the arrest warrants.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.