(From left) Freelance journalist Mohamed J Abu Safia and Palestinian activist Fadi Abushammala. Abushammala welcomed the arrest warrant issued for Benjamin Netenyahu and Yoav Gallant by the ICC, but questioned how many more Palestianins must die before meaningful action is taken. (Photo: Supplied / Fadi Abushammala)
“At last there is someone in the world putting Israeli leaders on the table, telling them that they are committing a crime. For so many years now, hundreds of massacres have been happening against the Palestinian people, and the world remained silent.
“What I love about what happened [when the ICC issued the arrest warrant] was that someone was brave enough to say, ‘No, you [Netanyahua and Gallant] are not going to have the freedom to move around while you are covered by the Palestinian kids’ blood’.”
These were the impassioned words of Palestinian activist Fadi Abushammala after hearing that the International Criminal Court (ICC) had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
Daily Maverick previously reported that on Thursday, 21 November 2024, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan announced that the international body’s judges had accepted his request to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for their role in the current war that was sparked when Hamas attacked southern Isreal, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others in 2023.
Israel’s retaliation to the 7 October attack has earned it condemnation from humanitarian organisations and states alike, and though the country has rationalised the war by stating it is acting in self-defence, Israel’s critics generally agree that its actions go beyond a justifiable use of force.
ICC mandate
Seated at a table at a sixth-floor restaurant at the Sandton Sun Hotel in Johannesburg, Abushammala told Daily Maverick what the arrest warrants meant and how it represented hope for international justice for the people of Palestine.
Owing to the lack of international law enforcement, the ICC has been unable to enforce its mandate and is forced to rely on member states to enforce arrest warrants.
In 2017, South Africa refused to arrest former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir when he landed in the country. Al Bashir had a warrant issued against him. More recently, the country allowed Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate virtually in the BRICS Summit to avoid having to arrest him in 2023.
These are just some examples that highlight why some say it is unlikely that Netanyahu and Gallant will be arrested.
Read more: Middle East crisis news hub
“For me, the best thing that I could ever be dreaming of was to read Netanyahu’s name next to the words ‘arrest warrant’. If you asked me at the beginning of this year what were my hopes, I wouldn’t have believed this could happen. It feels like a dream. Whether he gets arrested or not; I don’t know if that will happen. But the fact that Netanyahu cannot go where he pleases and must now navigate the world differently makes me so happy,” Abushammala said.
The Palestinian activist added that because 124 countries are signatories to the Rome Statute and, as a result, are compelled to respect and comply with the arrest warrants, both Netanyahu and Gallant will experience just a fraction of the discomfort and isolation Palestinian citizens have endured for years.
“For years we have had to do that; for years Palestinians have had to navigate roads and endured checkpoints that make their lives difficult. Many times I have had to sit at checkpoints the whole day and at the end Israeli soldiers will tell me to go home, you can’t enter the city. Finally, Netyanhau will experience at least 1% of what Palestinians experienced,” he said.
A life of indignity and dehumanisation
Although the ICC might be unable to enforce the majority of its mandate, humanitarian organisations have insisted that compliance from member states could help save lives.
The United Nations Human Rights Commissioner (UNHRC) released a statement on Tuesday, 27 November, reminding states of “their legal and moral obligation to uphold international law and punish war criminals”.
“As millions of people in the region, especially those in Gaza, continue to endure abhorrent atrocities, it is incumbent on all states to demonstrate their commitment to justice and upholding international law universally, without bias or double standards,” read the statement.
Read more: High noon at the ICC: Zionism’s intractable Netanyahu problem
Speaking to Daily Maverick, Palestinian journalist Noor Sweirki said that as much as many people in Gaza were elated by the news of the arrest warrants, many civilians are still heavily affected by the ongoing war and subsequent crimes in the region.
“These warrants are affecting Palestinians on a moral level, but on the practical level, it is not having any effect. We have been witnessing declarations and statements, but the reality shows that Israel is not willing to work these international laws,” she said.
Sweirki said that daily life in Gaza is devoid of dignity, as Palestinian citizens are forced to contend with an Israeli-orchestrated starvation campaign and consistent bombing from the Israeli Defence Force.
“A typical day during this war starts and ends with the bombing and the shelling of Gaza. In between all this, we are seeking food, we are seeking water, healthcare services and medications, and our children are trying to get back to schooling as best as they can.
“We live between the rubble of our houses and towns. There is no justice in our daily life. What we are trying to do on a typical day is survive and that is it,” said Sweirki, who still lives in Gaza.
This was echoed by Abushammala, who said: “In the South of Gaza you will spend the first two or three hours looking for water. Then you will spend even more hours looking for food.
“In normal life, a person would buy food for days because there is electricity, and you have a fridge you can just open it and get what you want. But living in a tent, under the sun, you have to get your food day by day otherwise it will get rotten and [finding food] is not an easy thing to do, especially since the kind of food people living in Gaza can find is just tin stuff.”
Abushammala, who left Gaza months after the war began and is now based in Washington DC, told the story of a friend still living in Gaza who spent an entire day looking for a single potato because his one-year-old son had just started eating solids.
“My dad talks about vegetables as if they are gold that they can’t find. Our farms have been systematically destroyed,” he added.
“How many more Palestinian lives must be lost, how much blood must be spilled until the entire world recognises that a massacre, a genocide is taking place?” Abushammala asked.
“How much should we pay with our life and blood and kids and people and future until the world says there are Israeli criminals that must be brought to the table to be judged?”
‘I live off hope’
When asked if he still had hope that Israel would stop its bombardment of Gaza and the Palestinians would experience freedom, despite doubts that the ICC warrants would result in arrests, Abushammala responded: “Yes! Come on, yeah, I live off hopes. What else is there?”
“I always get asked how I keep hope alive and I always answer, ‘We just must. We do not have the privilege to say we are exhausted.’ This [fight] is not just for us, this is for every single one in Palestine and every single Palestinian who because of Israel has been displaced from Palestine,” he said.
Sweirki, who has lived in Gaza her entire life, said that although she had previously experienced several blockades and bombardments from Israel, the current war is by far the worst.
“Thousands of people have been killed and we are living in constant fear. We do not have rights, we do not have dignity. The world needs to know that this war should end because we are being dehumanised. I hope that in the future we will have peace, that we will have justice, to live a dignified life and have an opportunity to raise my children with no fear of losing them to an Israeli attack,” Sweirki said. DM