Bias in the International Courts

Nawaf Salam, who was serving as president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has been selected as Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate. He said on Tuesday that he opposes exclusion and supports unity – responding to an accusation of excluding Hezbollah.

But he went on to talk about wanting the “full withdrawal of the Israeli enemy from every inch” of Lebanon, and in so doing revealed his long-standing view of Israel.

In response, Israel’s Foreign Minister noted that Salam’s statement reveals the bias in the international courts. The fact that Salam thinks of Israel as an enemy means there was no chance of him giving an unbiased opinion in the cases involving Israel at the ICJ. Yet he was appointed president of the court.

However, now that he is moving on, Israelis might be more hopeful about the future at the court, with Julia Sebutinde set to assume the presidency. She recently made headlines for robustly defending Israel against South Africa’s allegations of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

The problem of bias is also apparent at the International Criminal Court (ICC), where prosecutor, Karim Khan, has asked judges to reject Israel’s objections to the arrest warrants issued against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

There has been much criticism of the basis for issuing those arrest warrants.

The following interview with Prof Eugene Kontorovich about those arrest warrants was posted by ILTV News in November.