Guerrilla Lawfare Begins

The Goldstone report fallout continues: Luis Moreno-Ocampa, the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague is already considering a war crimes investigation of one IDF reserve officer, Lt. Col. David Benjamin.

Newsweek writes:

Israel did not sign the treaty that created the ICC and thus is outside Moreno-Ocampo's jurisdiction, but thanks to a bit of legal sleight of hand, the prosecutor told NEWSWEEK he believes he has all the authority he needs to launch an inquiry: Benjamin holds dual citizenship in both Israel and South Africa, and the latter has signed the ICC's charter, bringing Benjamin into the court's orbit.

See Haaretz for more info on the case.

"Lawfare," as Anne Herzberg once described it, is "the frivolous exploitation of Western courts to harass Israeli officials." The growing movement for universal jurisdiction fuels the phenomenon.

And it's threat is now no longer limited to Israel. Moreno-Ocampo, who Time once called The Don Quixote of Darfur, is also looking into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity by US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. A few days before the Goldstone report was released, the Wall St. Journal reported:

The prosecutor said forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization -- which include U.S. servicemen -- could potentially become the target of an ICC prosecution, as the alleged crimes would have been committed in Afghanistan, which has joined the war-crimes court.

Ambassador Michael Oren articulately pointed out in today's Boston Globe that the Goldstone report not only ties the hands of Israeli soldiers fighing Palestinian terror, but every other country fighting terror around the world -- because of the possibility of these kinds politicized investigations and legal maneuvers.

See HonestReporting's reaction to the Goldstone report, which includes an updated list of further resources from around the web and blogosphere.

Posted at 01:10 PM