Dutton threatens to pull Australia from criminal court
The opposition leader has floated withdrawing Australia from the world’s top criminal court after taking issue with prosecutors pursuing Israeli leaders.
Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton
Peter Dutton has flagged a coalition government could withdraw Australia from the world’s top criminal court over its stance on alleged Israeli war crimes.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan has sought arrest warrants for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
There were reasonable grounds to suspect their involvement in possible war crimes, including starvation of civilians and intentionally directing attacks against civilians, he said.
Warrants have also been sought for three Hamas commanders over suspected crimes against humanity including murder, sexual violence and hostage-taking.
Mr Dutton says the Albanese government should pressure the court “to make sure that they reverse this terrible decision”.
The opposition leader says a coalition government could cut ties with the court if it failed to bow to pressure.
“I don’t rule it out,” he said on Wednesday.
“But I think the pressure at the moment needs to be for like-minded countries that share our values, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder … to make sure that this anti-Semitic stance that they’ve taken does not advance.”
Only a handful of state parties have withdrawn from the court and two of those countries rescinded their withdrawal before it came into effect.
US President Joe Biden branded the warrant application “outrageous” and some European nations denounced the move and questioned the decision to apply for the warrants simultaneously.
But the French government defended the court’s independence and Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said crimes committed in Gaza “must be prosecuted at the highest level”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it would be inappropriate to comment on a matter before the court as the Department of Foreign Affairs defended the court’s independence.
A department spokesperson said: “Australia respects the ICC and the important role it has in upholding international law”.
The spokesperson rejected any equivalence between Israel and Hamas, which is a designated terrorist organisation in Australia.
They unequivocally condemned Hamas’ actions as they called for the release of hostages and a humanitarian ceasefire.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham accused the prime minister of “wilful inconsistency”.
He pointed to Mr Albanese commenting on the case of Julian Assange before a British court while declining to offer a position on the International Criminal Court during the same press conference.
By: Dominic Giannini/AAP
The ICC is hardly upholding international law if it’s seen to bend it itself; what a puerile statement by the department spokesperson.
Good on you, Peter Dutton, for making the whole situation such a talking point. What would be the point in belonging to the ICC if it were not a genuinely esteemed, trustworthy body anyway?
Albanese is buttering his bread ever more thickly on the wrong side and hurting Australian Jewish communities as well as our important alliance with Israel as well. His way of doing this is deceitful and shameful.
jews and people against terrorists should think very very hard about ever voting for labour again.. and don’t even mention the ‘greens’