Thierry Brésillon
Middle East Eye / December 1, 2024
French diplomacy is ignoring its obligations under international law in return for an illusory regional influence
In a statement published on 27 November, the French foreign affairs ministry claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and the other ministers concerned” (i.e. Yoav Gallant, his former defence minister), targeted by an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), benefit from immunities granted to states not party to the Rome Statute, which created the court.
France would take these immunities “into account should the ICC request of us their arrest and surrender”, the statement said.
In other words, if given the opportunity, France would not arrest or hand over to international justice Israeli leaders accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It is an understatement to say that France greeted the issuance of the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant without enthusiasm, merely “taking note” of the decision last week, while insisting on the fact (technically correct) that “this is not a ruling but the formalisation of an indictment”.
But until 27 November, it had not mentioned any immunity.
Although EU outgoing foreign policy chief Josep Borrell emphasised that compliance with ICC rulings was mandatory for EU member states and G7 foreign ministers announced they would “comply with their respective obligations”, most western states seem rather embarrassed – if not downright hostile, like the United States or Hungary – at the idea of having to surrender an Israeli leader to the ICC.
Yielding to Netanyahu’s blackmail
France has attempted to resolve this tension between adherence in principle to the ICC and support for Israel – and to shirk its obligations – through perilous legal acrobatics, consisting of asserting that since Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, its leaders benefit from immunity.
However, officials of all ranks, including a head of state or government, under an ICC arrest warrant are not entitled to immunity, even if they belong to a non-state party to the Rome Statute, such as Israel.
France had no such qualms when the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2023. There was no mention of any immunity.
“Anyone responsible for a war crime or crime against humanity will be held accountable, regardless of their status or rank,” then Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna firmly stated. Russia had, however, withdrawn from the Rome Statute in 2016.
The benefit for French diplomacy is illusory, given that the preferential treatment granted to Israel can only further erode [its] credibility
That the ministry’s statement and the opportune “discovery” of this immunity came on the very day the ceasefire in Lebanon was agreed was certainly no coincidence.
According to Amir Tibon, a journalist for the Israeli daily Haaretz, “the French government, according to the prime minister’s circle, agreed to publish this statement only in light of an Israeli ultimatum and a threat to otherwise leave France out of the ceasefire negotiations process and mechanism”.
It is, therefore, in an attempt to maintain a role in the Middle East that French diplomacy seems to have yielded to what appears as Netanyahu’s blackmail, and twisted the interpretation of the law.
But the benefit for French diplomacy is illusory, given that the preferential treatment granted to Israel can only further erode the credibility of states which, like France, claim to justify their international influence by invoking the promotion of an order based on law and human rights.
The Washington Post exhibited this double standard point blank in a recent editorial headlined: “The International Criminal Court is not the venue to hold Israel to account. The ICC is needed to help resolve war crimes in Russia, Sudan, Myanmar.”
How can one say more bluntly that law does not apply to everyone in the same way, depending on whether or not one is aligned with western interests?
The ‘democratic’ character
In its initial comment on the issuance of the arrest warrants, the French foreign ministry insisted that “there is no possible equivalence between Hamas, a terrorist group, and Israel, a democratic state”.
As if killing tens of thousands of civilians for over a year of war on Gaza, forcibly displacing more than two million people and depriving them of the minimum conditions of survival, and deliberately killing children, health workers and journalists, were all crimes absolved by the “democratic” character of the states that perpetrate them.
As if, on the contrary, democracies were not subject to an increased requirement of exemplarity and had, more than any other countries, to refrain from violating their own rules or be subject to the corruption of their democratic character.
Instead, most western countries unconditionally protect Israel, which is seen as the ultimate victim since it was the outcome of the monstrous crimes of European antisemitism.
In the second part of its statement, which triggered less comments but revealed the political vision underlying the French position, the ministry reiterated France’s identification with Israel, “two democracies committed to the rule of law and to respect for a professional and independent justice system”.
For France, the ethnic cleansing of 1948, the systematic non-compliance with UN resolutions, the illegal occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967, the colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the construction of the illegal separation wall, the apartheid system and, of course, the accusations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide… none of this calls into question Israel’s commitment to the rule of law or its democratic character.
Worse, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot recently told parliament that “redirecting the accusation of genocide against the government of a people who suffered it is not only a moral error but also a legal error”.
These remarks were described by the French Jewish Union for Peace as “negationist” since they deny the accusations, although thoroughly documented, of genocidal acts perpetrated by the Israeli army, supported by explicit calls from political leaders.
The Jewish anti-Zionist group also denounced Barrot’s words as “antisemitic” since by “saying that the Israeli government is the government of the Jewish ‘people’, the minister makes French Jews into foreigners in their own country […] a classic antisemitic cliche”.
Supporting a downward spiral
Wednesday’s press release further said that “France intends to continue working in close cooperation with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the other Israeli authorities to achieve peace and security for all in the Middle East”.
More than a guarantee of impunity to spare Netanyahu, France is thus providing its support to the prime minister’s strategic venture: dismantling by force the regional “axis of resistance” deployed by Iran and which brings together the Palestinian Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah, the Houthis of Yemen, and several Iraqi armed groups.
Netanyahu alleges that its eradication would be the key to peace and security.
But such a prospect overlooks, on the one hand, that the objectives of the Israeli leaders are not limited to establishing a political and military order that guarantees Israel’s regional supremacy. They aim to complete the long effort of the Israeli right to eliminate the Palestinian issue and thus achieve the “Greater Eretz Israel”.
Driven by a messianic delirium and uninhibited racism, the national-religious far right has taken control of government action, woven its web through the state, in religious institutions and the military. It is actively preparing the annexation of the West Bank and even all or part of the Gaza strip, as well as the construction of a “Third Temple” in Jerusalem in place of the Al Aqsa Mosque.
This idea of peace, with which France concurs, neglects on the other hand the lasting enmities against Israel that the extreme violence inflicted for more than a year has rooted in the minds of Palestinians, Lebanese and Arabs in general, as well as the resilience capacity of the “axis of resistance”.
A true peace cannot forgo a settlement that guarantees, in all equality, Palestinian national aspirations. However, this prospect is moving away.
The ethno-nationalist and authoritarian wave that is gaining ground around the world, and of which Israel, with the support of the future Trump administration, is the paroxysmal expression, has given itself the mission of destroying the liberal international order established to avoid a repetition of the horrors of the Second World War.
By responding to the crucial acts of international justice with such casualness in return for an illusory regional influence, French diplomacy is not helping to stop this downward spiral.
Thierry Brésillon is an independent journalist based in Tunis since April 2011
