Global Policy Forum

By Julie Stahl

The U.S. and Israel have signed a treaty intended to protect their nationals from prosecution in the International Criminal Court. According to the pact, both countries agreed not to extradite, transfer or surrender the citizens of one another's country to the ICC or to a third country, which might transfer them to The Hague, where the court is located.

On July 1, the court started accepting complaints against individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression, but ironically terrorism is not included in the list of international crimes because the drafters could not agree on a definition.

Neither the U.S. nor Israel have ratified the ICC treaty. Both fear that its cases could be highly politicized. However, both have made it clear that they are strong advocates of accountability in cases of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Israeli Foreign Ministry Legal Expert Alan Baker said on Monday that both Israel and the U.S. are concerned because of the wide-ranging freedom given to the independent prosecutor of the ICC to initiate prosecutions. According to Baker, the U.S. is afraid that the court will be abused to prosecute U.S. servicemen serving all over the world.

"The U.S. is very concerned that it will become a U.S.-bashing body and Israel-bashing body," Baker said.

Israel does not have servicemen around the world, Baker said, but he noted that on Monday, Palestinian and Arab delegates to the United Nations General Assembly plan to appeal for Israeli military and political leaders to be transferred to the criminal court. Although Israel was one of the founding members of the idea of an international criminal court, it is concerned that the ICC will become another "U.N.-style Israel-bashing body," he added.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John R. Bolton signed the agreement on Sunday. Peres was quoted as saying that any country that does not have to fight terrorism cannot judge another country that needs to do so. Calling it an "important bilateral agreement," Bolton said he hoped the pact would help protect Americans from politically motivated prosecution.

"We are entirely committed both to the fight against terrorism but also to the effective action against war crimes and crimes against humanity," Bolton said at the signing. "We respect the states that have acceded to their own statute creating the international criminal court... We hope they respect our decision not to accede to that.

"We hope they respect our decision to avail ourselves of the procedure made available by their own statute to prevent our respective nationals from falling into the potentially highly politicized jurisdiction of that court," he said.

In statements, both countries pointed out that the treaty is consistent with Article 98 of the Rome Statue of the ICC, which says that a state may refuse to surrender an individual to the Court if that surrender contravenes its other international obligations. Initiated by the U.S., the treaty with Israel was the second such agreement signed. The first was between the U.S. and Romania.

According to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, the U.S. plans to "conclude similar agreements with a large number of countries and are actively pursuing discussions toward this end."

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.