Wanted alleged war criminal Yoav Gallant, the former defense minister for Israel, has reportedly visited the White House for a meeting with a key Biden official — just weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) put out a warrant for his arrest over crimes against humanity.
Gallant posted on social media that he met with President Joe Biden’s Middle East envoy, Brett McGurk, on Tuesday to discuss a deal to release the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza. In the post on Facebook and X, he wrote that there was “a real possibility for a breakthrough” for a deal. He attached photos of him merrily shaking hands with McGurk, a Trump administration holdover who has been instrumental in crafting Biden’s policy on Gaza.
He added that the meeting was one of several meetings scheduled in D.C., including one with think tank Washington Institute for Near East Policy that was cancelled after protesters demonstrated outside Gallant’s hotel in New York City last week.
On November 21, the ICC put out a warrant for Gallant to be arrested and brought to the Hague for alleged crimes against humanity and the war crimes of using starvation as a method of warfare and intentionally directing an attack against civilians in Gaza.
Gallant is no longer a member of Israel’s government. He directed Israel’s military as defense minister through Israel’s genocide until last month, when he was replaced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for someone more loyal to the prime minister.
The court said that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that both Gallant and Netanyahu “intentionally and knowingly” deprived Palestinians in Gaza from basic needs like food and water, while their alleged actions destroying the conditions of life in Gaza constitute crimes of humanity.
Several of the 124 countries party to the ICC’s statute have pledged to enforce the warrants if given the opportunity, including European countries like Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands. The ICC lists Gallant and Netanyahu’s statuses as “at large.”
Even as the U.S. has filed criminal war crimes charges against two top Syrian officials, the U.S. has rejected the legitimacy of the warrants for the Israeli officials, and thus the legitimacy of the court itself, threatening to undermine the entire structure of international law. In fact, many conservative members of Congress have supported legislation threatening to sanction ICC prosecutors going after Netanyahu and Gallant, while some lawmakers have threatened to invade the Hague over the warrants.
That the U.S. is not only granting Netanyahu and Gallant a pass on their warrants but also welcoming Gallant for a visit to the White House is yet another show of the Biden administration’s willingness to bend over backwards to accommodate Israel, even when it comes to ex-officials.
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