IT has been 73 years since the Israel-Palestine conflict took place. In the recent attacks on Sheikh Jarrah, hundreds of civilians, including Palestinian women and children, were killed within a week.

More disgustingly, according to the World Health Organisation, the same attack was apparently indiscriminate. Forty-six attacks were carried out on healthcare, including against five health facilities, in the Palestinian territories.

The recent attack was even directed at the one and only Covid-19 centre in the area. Several attacks were shamelessly and proudly admitted by Israeli officials, justifying them as acts of self-defence – a mind-boggling justification indeed.

Anyone who has even a cursory glimpse of Article 8 of the Rome Statute may easily cross in his mind this truism: wasn’t that a glaring act of war crime?

Article 8 of the Rome Statute reads, inter alia, actions which constitute war crimes. And they include:

2 (a)(b)(v) – Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives;

2 (a)(b)(ix) – Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided they are not military objectives;

Be that as it may, even a perfunctory glance of the situation in Gaza may lead us to conclude that an act of heinous war crime duly occurred there. In fact, the same is recognised and admitted by the Israelis.

Such an observation, of course, pales in comparison to what real statistics show in the conflict throughout the span of 72 years.

Statistics clearly depict the crimes of torturing, wrongful detention, misplacement of detainees and killing of unarmed Palestinian civilians and others are overwhelming, to say the least.

Henceforth, it is safe to say that a full investigation, not just into war crimes but other crimes as well, such as crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression committed during the conflict, is badly needed and much awaited by the international communities.

Yet, one question is still left hanging. Assuming the investigation is duly carried out and completed and the office of the prosecutor is fully satisfied to bring the matter to trial, can we expect the mighty and powerful individuals such as Benjamin Netanyahu be brought to book before the International Criminal Court (ICC)?

While there is no concrete answer to that, we can still be profoundly optimistic should we look at the world history.

History would enlighten us that international crimes occurred and recurred. When people like Charles Taylor, Ratko Mladic and Pol Pot were accused of committing crimes such as genocides and war crimes, the world was initially not too enthusiastic about seeing them held responsible, let alone tried and punished.

Some even lamented that it was impossible to indict those criminals, to begin with, given that they might possibly be protected by some of their powerful friends and supporters around the globe.

Nonetheless, they were all somewhat successfully indicted in ICC and some are currently serving their sentences in jail. Once their friendships frayed and they were no longer endowed with the pecuniary resources, all the expected help and protection would no longer forthcoming.

History has proved and would repeat itself, especially for someone whose support from its big brother, that is, the United States, is diminishing and the world’s support for Palestinians is, in turn, blooming like never before.

No one could live with impunity and certainly not Netanyahu and his cohorts. Impunity is always clothed with power. Once the power disappears, the impunity will also fly out of the window.

In pursuing global justice, we should never be easily despaired. The light will appear at the end of the tunnel and justice will prevail, God willing. – May 24, 2021.

* Muhammad Naufal Mohamed Hanipa reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.