Russia is claiming that the United States is using the ICC, the international criminal court, to taint Russia’s reputation. Russia also claims that the United States is being hypocritical by objecting to an investigation of the Israel-Palestine war, given that the United States fully supported an investigation into the Ukraine-Russia war. The United States’ responded with the accusation by reasoning that the ICC did not have jurisdiction over Israel and Hamas, given that Hamas is not a state-actor. The United States also shared evidence and intelligence containing proof of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. The response by Russia was that the West, specifically the United States had ignored the war crimes committed by Ukraine, which Russia also had evidence of, but was never investigated by the ICC.
My opinion is that the ICC tends to lean towards american interests. If the ICC is going to investigate the war in Ukraine then they should also investigate Israel and Palestine. I think that the reason the United States is attempting to block the investigations into Ukraine’s possible war crimes and Israel’s lethal response to Hamas is because the United States has backed both of the countries with extremely public support, if the ICC were to find war crimes committed by either of those countries then the United States would be forced to stand trial at the ICC for a breach of the geneva convention as a aid to those crimes.
In class we talk about how accusations from one country to another, especially between global superpowers like Russia and the United States can create tense situations that certainly don’t help the war footing that Russia is already on with Ukraine.