Amal Clooney’s surprise role in Israeli PM arrest warrant

The wife of Hollywood star George Clooney has revealed the major part she played in the leaders of Israel and Hamas being charged with war crimes.

Amal Clooney’s key role in Israeli PM arrest warrant

The human rights lawyer wife of Hollywood superstar George Clooney has revealed her instrumental role in persuading the International Criminal Court to bring arrest warrants against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as three Hamas leaders.

Amal Clooney announced on Monday, US time, that four months ago she had been asked to assist the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its deliberations.

Since then, Ms Clooney said, she and other “international legal experts” had “unanimously concluded” that there were reasonable grounds to believe that both the Hamas top brass, PM Netanyahu and his defence minister had “committed war crimes”.

Amal Clooney and George Clooney attend the World Premiere of Ticket to Paradise at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on September 07, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Universal)

On Monday ICC prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants against Mr Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.

The prosecutor, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said he was seeking warrants against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant for crimes including “wilful killing”, “extermination and/or murder” and “starvation”.

The Hamas trio are charged with “extermination, murder, rape, taking hostages”, and “torture”.

Israel’s war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said the ICC prosecutor’s bid was a “historical crime”.

“Placing the leaders of a country that went into a battle to protect its citizens in the same line with bloodthirsty terrorists is moral blindness,” Mr Gantz said on Twitter/X.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been targeted by the ICC. (Photo by DEBBIE HILL / POOL / AFP)

As has the head of the political wing of Hamas Yahya Sinwar. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

Clooney: ‘I beleive in the rule of law’

Amal and George Clooney are the founders of New York based human rights organisation the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

Ms Clooney is a Lebanese born British barrister who has represented high profile clients including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who the US is seeking to extradite.

Shortly after the ICC said it intended to seek arrest warrants, Ms Clooney released a statement on her foundation’s website saying that she and other advisers had been approached by the ICC’s Mr Khan to assist with evaluating evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the cases.

“Despite our diverse personal backgrounds, our legal findings are unanimous,” Ms Clooney wrote.

“We have unanimously determined that the Court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in Palestine and by Palestinian nationals.

“We unanimously conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Hamas leaders Sinwar, Deif and Haniyeh have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including hostage-taking, murder and crimes of sexual violence.

“We unanimously conclude that there are reasonable grounds to believe that (Israel’s) Netanyahu and Gallant have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity including starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and extermination”.

Ms Clooney said she served on the panel “because I believe in the rule of law and the need to protect civilian lives”.

“As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child’s life has less value than another’s.

“I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law.”

Human -rights lawyer Amal Clooney takes part in a panel discussion at the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London in 2019. (Photo by Tolga AKMEN / AFP)

Amal Clooney married actor and director George Clooney, who is a double Oscar winner and has starred in ER, Ocean’s Eleven and Ticket to Paradise, in 2014

The ICC announcement has caused consternation in Israel, Palestine and beyond.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said that Mr Khan “in the same breath mentions the Prime Minister and the minister of defence of the State of Israel alongside the abominable Nazi monsters of Hamas – a historical disgrace that will be remembered forever”.

He denounced the move as a “scandalous decision” that amounted to “a frontal attack … on the victims of October 7” when Hamas launched their attack on Israel, sparking the Gaza war.

US President Joe Biden said the arrest warrants were “outrageous”.

“Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas,” he commented.

“We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”

Hamas said in a statement that the warrants against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant came “seven months late”.

The group said it also demanded “the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against leaders of the Palestinian resistance for violating UN conventions and resolutions”.