Friend-ly enby-box

stephie

1 Jahr her • •

stephie
1 Jahr her • •

Die Beschimpfungen und Drohungen Seitens der Regierung Netanyahu gegenüber dem Internationalen Gerichtshof sind nicht neu.

Guardian, 972Mag & LocalCall haben in Kooperation recherchiert und offen gelegt, dass der Krieg gegen den ICC und dessen Chefermittler bereits seit über 9 Jahren anhält.

Bedrohungen wie man das von der Mafia kennt mit Geheimdienstmitteln.

Teil 1:
»Revealed: Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry«
theguardian.com/world/article/…

Revealed: Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry

Mossad director Yossi Cohen personally involved in secret plot to pressure Fatou Bensouda to drop Palestine investigation, sources say

^{Harry Davies (The Guardian)}

Dieser Beitrag wurde bearbeitet. (1 Jahr her)

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

Teil 2:

»Surveillance and interference: Israel’s covert war on the ICC exposed
Top Israeli government and security officials have overseen a nine-year surveillance operation targeting the ICC and Palestinian rights groups to try to thwart a war crimes probe, a joint investigation reveals.«
972mag.com/icc-israel-surveill…

Surveillance and interference: Israel’s covert war on the ICC exposed

Top Israeli officials have overseen a nine-year operation targeting the ICC and Palestinian rights groups to thwart a war crimes probe.

^{Amjad Iraqi (+972 Magazine)}

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Immediately after becoming a member of the court, the PA asked the prosecutor’s office to investigate crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, starting from the date on which the State of Palestine accepted the court’s jurisdiction: July 13, 2014. Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor at the time, opened a preliminary examination to determine whether the criteria for a full investigation could be met.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Fearing the legal and political consequences of potential prosecutions, Israel raced to prepare intelligence teams in the army, the Shin Bet (domestic intelligence), and the Mossad (foreign intelligence), alongside a covert team of military and civilian lawyers, to lead the effort to forestall a full ICC investigation. All this was coordinated under Israel’s National Security Council (NSC), whose authority is derived from the Prime Minister’s Office.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»“Everyone, the entire military and political establishment, was looking for ways to damage the PA’s case,” said one intelligence source. “Everyone pitched in: the Justice Ministry, the Military International Law Department [part of the Military Advocate General’s Office], the Shin Bet, the NSC. [Everyone] saw the ICC as something very important, as a war that had to be waged, and one that Israel had to be defended against. It was described in military terms.”«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Four sources confirmed Bensouda’s private exchanges with Palestinian officials about the PA’s case in The Hague were routinely monitored and shared widely within Israel’s intelligence community. “The conversations were usually about the progress of the prosecution: submitting documents, testimonies, or talking about an event that happened — ‘Did you see how Israel massacred Palestinians at the last demonstration?’ — things like that,” one source explained.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»The former prosecutor was far from the only target. Dozens of other international officials related to the probe were similarly surveilled. One of the sources said there was a large whiteboard with the names of around 60 people who were under surveillance — half of them Palestinians and half from other countries, including UN officials and ICC personnel in The Hague.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Because Palestinian human rights groups were frequently providing the prosecutor’s office with materials about Israel’s attacks on Palestinians, detailing incidents they wanted the prosecutor to consider as part of the probe, these organizations themselves became key targets of Israel’s surveillance operation. Here, the Shin Bet took the lead.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»In addition to monitoring materials that the PA submitted to the ICC, Israeli intelligence also monitored appeals and reports from the human rights groups that included testimonies of Palestinians who had suffered attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers; Israel then surveilled these testifiers, too.«

»According to the sources, the primary surveillance targets were four Palestinian human rights organizations: Al-Haq, Addameer, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR). «

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Addameer sent appeals to to the ICC about torture practices against prisoners and detainees, while the other three groups sent multiple appeals over the years regarding Israel’s settlement enterprise in the West Bank, punitive house demolitions, bombing campaigns in Gaza, and specific senior Israeli political and military leaders.
One intelligence source said the motive for surveilling the organizations was stated openly: they harm Israel’s standing in the international arena. «

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»In October 2021, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz — who himself was named in several of the appeals that Palestinian organizations sent to the ICC, due to his role as chief of staff during the 2014 Gaza war and defense minister during the May 2021 war — declared Al-Haq, Addameer, and four other Palestinian human rights groups to be “terrorist organizations.”«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»A 972&LocalCall investigation, released a few weeks later, found that Gantz’s order was issued without any serious evidence to back up its allegations; a Shin Bet dossier claiming to provide proof of its charges & another follow-up dossier a few months later, left even Israel’s staunchest allies unconvinced. At the time, it was widely speculated — including by the organizations themselves — that these groups were targeted at least in part because of their activities relating to the ICC probe.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»According to an intelligence source, the Shin Bet — which gave the initial recommendation to outlaw the six groups — surveilled the organizations’ employees, and the information gathered was used by Gantz when he declared them terrorist organizations. An investigation by Citizen Lab at the time identified Pegasus spyware, produced by the Israeli firm NSO Group, on the phones of several Palestinians working in those NGOs. (The Shin Bet did not respond to our request for comment.)«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»However, the human rights groups expressed deep concern for the privacy of the Palestinians who submitted testimonies to the court«

»“People are afraid to file a complaint [to the ICC], or to mention their real names, because they fear being persecuted by the military, of losing their entry permits,” Hamdi Shakura, a lawyer at PCHR, explained. “A man in Gaza who has a relative sick with cancer is scared the army will take his entry permit & prevent his treatment — this sort of thing happens.”«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Soon after Bensouda announced that her office was opening a preliminary examination, Netanyahu ordered the formation of a covert team of lawyers from the Justice Ministry, Foreign Ministry, and Military Advocate General’s Office (the Israeli army’s highest legal authority), which regularly traveled to The Hague for secret meetings with ICC officials between 2017 and 2019.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»According to a former ICC official familiar with the contents of the meetings, ICC personnel presented the Israeli lawyers with details of incidents in which Palestinians were attacked or killed, and the lawyers would respond with their own information. “In the beginning it was tense,” recalled the official.

An intelligence source said that the purpose of the information obtained through surveillance was “to make Bensouda feel that her legal data is unreliable.”«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Given that Israel refuses to recognize the court’s authority and legitimacy, however, it was crucial for the delegation that these meetings be kept secret. A source familiar with the meetings said the Israeli officials repeatedly stressed to the ICC that “we can never make it public that we’re communicating with you.”«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»For the Palestinian NGOs filing reports with the ICC, however, Israel’s internal military accountability mechanisms are a farce. [...] Palestinians have long argued that these systems — from police and army investigators to the Supreme Court — routinely serve as a “fig leaf” for the Israeli state and its security apparatus, helping to “whitewash” crimes while effectively granting soldiers and commanders a license to continue criminal acts with impunity.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Issam Younis, who was a target of Israeli surveillance because of his role as director of Al Mezan, spent much of his career in Gaza, in the organization’s now partially bombed offices, collecting and filing “hundreds” of complaints from Palestinians to the Israeli Military Advocate General’s Office. The vast majority of these complaints were closed with no indictments, convincing him that “victims cannot pursue justice through that system.”«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»In an interview in September 2022, in which he also revealed some details about Israel’s “informal dialogue” with the ICC, Schondorf of Israel’s Justice Ministry praised Khan for having “shifted the trajectory of the ship,” adding that it seemed like the prosecutor would focus on more “mainstream issues” because the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict became a less pressing issue for the international community.”«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»By the end of the third week of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, which followed the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, Khan was already on the ground at the Rafah Crossing. He subsequently made visits to both the West Bank and southern Israel in December, where he met with Palestinian officials as well as Israeli survivors of the October 7 attack and the relatives of people who had been killed.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»In February, Khan issued a strongly-worded statement on X effectively urging Israel not to launch an assault on Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians were already seeking refuge. He also warned: “Those who do not comply with the law should not complain later when my office takes action." Just as with his predecessor, Israeli intelligence also surveilled Khan’s activities with Palestinians and other officials in his office.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»For the Palestinian human rights groups that Israel surveilled, Netanyahu and Gallant are just the tip of the iceberg. Three days before Khan’s announcement, the heads of Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and PCHR sent Khan a joint letter calling explicitly for arrest warrants against all members of Israel’s war cabinet, which includes Benny Gantz, as well as commanders and soldiers from the units currently involved in the Rafah offensive.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Khan now must also assess whether any Israelis behind operations aimed at undermining the ICC have committed offenses against the administration of justice. He warned in his May 20 announcement that his office “will not hesitate to act” against ongoing threats against the court and its investigation. Such offenses, for which Israeli leaders can be prosecuted regardless of the fact that Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, could potentially carry a prison sentence.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories«

»His activities were authorised at a high level and justified on the basis the court posed a threat of prosecutions against military personnel, according to a senior Israeli official.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»"You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”«

»One individual briefed on Cohen’s activities said he had used “despicable tactics” against Bensouda as part of an ultimately unsuccessful effort to intimidate and influence her. They likened his behaviour to “stalking"«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»The Mossad also took a keen interest in Bensouda’s family members and obtained transcripts of secret recordings of her husband, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Israeli officials then attempted to use the material to discredit the prosecutor.«

»In the Mossad’s efforts to influence Bensouda, Israel received support from an unlikely ally: Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who played a supporting role in the plot.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»The ICC case, however, dates back to 2015, when Bensouda decided to open a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine. Short of a full investigation, her inquiry was tasked with making an initial assessment of allegations of crimes by individuals in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Bensouda’s decision sparked the ire of Israel, which feared its citizens could be prosecuted for their involvement in operations in Palestinian territories. Israel had long been open about its opposition to the ICC, refusing to recognise its authority. Israeli ministers intensified their attacks on the court and even vowed to try to dismantle it.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Cohen’s first interaction with Bensouda appears to have taken place at the Munich security conference in 2017, when the Mossad director introduced himself to the prosecutor in a brief exchange. After this encounter, Cohen subsequently “ambushed” Bensouda in a bizarre episode in a Manhattan hotel suite«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»According to the publication, Cohen’s trips, during which he sought Kabila’s advice “on an issue of interest to Israel”, and which were almost certainly approved by Netanyahu, were highly unusual and had astonished senior figures within the intelligence community.

Reporting on the DRC meetings in 2022, the Israeli broadcaster Kan 11 said Cohen’s trips related to an “extremely controversial plan” and cited official sources who described it as “one of Israel’s most sensitive secrets”.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»Cohen repeatedly phoned the chief prosecutor and sought meetings with her...
Initially, the sources explained, the intelligence chief “tried to build a relationship” with the prosecutor and played “good cop” in an attempt to charm her. The initial objective, they said, appeared to have been to enlist Bensouda into cooperating with Israel....
Over time, however, the tone of Cohen’s contact changed and he began to use a range of tactics, including “threats and manipulation"«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

»A source familiar with Bensouda’s accounts of the final two meetings with Cohen said he had raised questions about her security, and that of her family, in a manner that led her to believe he was threatening her.

On one occasion, Cohen is said to have shown Bensouda copies of photographs of her husband, which were taken covertly when the couple were visiting London... Cohen suggested to the prosecutor that a decision to open a full investigation would be detrimental to her career.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

The diplomatic efforts were part of a coordinated effort by the gov of Netanyahu & Trump in the US to place public and private pressure on the prosecutor and her staff.
Between 2019 & 2020, in an unprecedented decision, the Trump administration imposed visa restrictions and sanctions on the chief prosecutor. The move was in retaliation to Bensouda’s pursuit of a separate investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan, allegedly committed by the Taliban and both Afghan and US military personnel.«

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

Hier noch ein zusammenfassender Bericht in deutscher Sprache:

»Israelischer Spionagechef drohte Chefanklägerin mit Kompromat
Ministerpräsident Netanjahu wollte offenbar Untersuchung zu Kriegsverbrechen verhindern«
nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1182497.…

Israelischer Spionagechef drohte Chefanklägerin mit Kompromat

Israels Geheimdienst hat laut einem Bericht versucht, den Internationalen Strafgerichtshof zu beeinflussen. Der Mossad drohte demnach Fatou Bensouda mit der Veröffentlichung kompromittierender Informationen.

^{nd-aktuell.de}

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

Meine Gedanken zu dem in den Artikel beschriebenen Sachverhalt:
Der Internationale Strafgerichtshof hätte schon lang Anklagen auf den Tisch legen müssen - wegen der Menschenrechtsverletzungen und weil der Rechtsweg für die Betroffenen quasi nicht existiert - und wegen der anhaltenden Einschüchterungsstrategie gegenüber den Opfern, NGOs und dem Gericht.

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

Hier noch ein weiterer deutschsprachiger Artikel dazu;
»Israel spionierte IStGH aus
Laut einer Recherche israelischer Medien gemeinsam mit dem britischen „Guardian“ soll Israel seit Jahren den Internationalen Strafgerichtshof (IStGH) ausspioniert und Telefonate abgehört haben. Israel wies die Vorwürfe gegenüber dem „Guardian“ zurück. «
orf.at/stories/3359013/

Medien: Israel spionierte IStGH aus

^ORF.at

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

Ergänzend dazu: bereits vor zwei Jahren wollte der Journalist Gur Megiddo über die Einflussnahme und Bedrohungen seitens Israel gegenüber dem Internationalen Gerichtshof berichten.

Er wurde deswegen einbestellt und Druck auf ihn ausgeübt, dass er nicht veröffentlicht. Ihm wurde unter anderem damit gedroht, dass er die Verhör-Räume von innen kennenlernen würde, wenn darüber berichtet würde.

Die Story wurde deswegen wieder zurückgezogen.

haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-0…

How Israeli security nixed Haaretz's report into alleged Mossad extortion of International Court prosecutor

This week's report in The Guardian revealed how then-Mossad chief Yossi Cohen tried to disrupt an investigation by then-International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda ■ In 2022, Haaretz was about to publish details of the affair, but security…

^{Gur Megiddo (Haaretz)}

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

Noch mehr Erklärungen zu der Einflussnahme auf das Gericht :

youtu.be/e5tq1tp1-o0?si=1vLUOq…

Israel's Secret Undermining of the ICC to Derail War Crimes Charges

Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-desc-ytWe speak with Kenneth Roth, international affairs scholar and former head of Human Rights Watch, ...

^YouTube

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 1 Jahr her • •

Details und Hintergründe über den den neun Jahre andauernden Kampf der israelischen Regierung gegen den Internationalen Strafgerichtshof, spannend wie ein Spionage-Thriller erzählt gibts hier auch als Podcast vom Guardian mit den Autoren der Recherche zum Anhören.

>>Exposing Israel’s secret ‘war’ on the ICC.
Harry Davies and Yuval Abraham report on how Israeli intelligence agencies tried to derail an ICC war crimes investigation<<
theguardian.com/news/audio/202…

Exposing Israel’s secret ‘war’ on the ICC – podcast

^{The Guardian}

Als Antwort auf stephie

stephie

Als Antwort auf stephie • 10 Monate her • •

Aktuelle Ergänzung:

Versuche den Internationalen Strafgerichtshof zu zu beeinflussen, um Ermittlungen zu behindern sind verboten. Nun werden die Ermittler in den Den Haag aufgefordert auch dazu (dem fast ein Jahrzehnt andauernden Kampf gegen das ICC) ein Strafverfahren einzuleiten.

»Dutch prosecutors mull criminal case over alleged Israel interference into ICC.
Complainants request examination of allegations Israel tried to derail international criminal court inquiry«
theguardian.com/law/2024/oct/0…

Dutch prosecutors mull criminal case over alleged Israel interference into ICC

Complainants request examination of allegations that Israel tried to derail international criminal court inquiry

^{Harry Davies (The Guardian)}

Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag

stephie

Unbekannter Ursprungsbeitrag • 1 Jahr her • •

@bifouba
Hatte ich nicht auf den Schirm. Danke für die Ergänzung.

@Bilal Barakat 🍉

⇧