International Criminal Court at The Hague
International Criminal Court at The HagueiStock

Professor Anne Bayefsky, the Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and President of the Human Rights Voices human rights organization, spoke to Arutz Sheva - Israel National News about the appeal by United Nations officials, including Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, against the bill passed by the US House of Representatives last week imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.

The UN official wrote, “It is shocking to see a country that considers itself a champion of the rule of law trying to stymie the actions of an independent and impartial tribunal set up by the international community, to thwart accountability.

“Threats against the ICC promote a culture of impunity. They make a mockery of the decades-long quest to place law above force and atrocity," they claimed. “Imposing sanctions on justice personnel for fulfilling their professional responsibilities is a blatant violation of human rights, striking at the core of judicial independence and the rule of law. The passage of a bill that creates a blind spot for justice regarding certain countries not only legalizes double standards and impunity but irreparably undermines the spirit of universality that the international justice system is built upon. Such actions erode public trust in the impartiality and integrity of justice and set a dangerous precedent, politicizing judicial functions and weakening the global commitment to accountability and fairness."

Professor Bayefsky said in response to the UN officials' claims, "The UN's Francesca Albanese is known worldwide to the victims of antisemitism as a leading propagandist, to the 21st century what the Nazi's Joseph Goebbels was to the 20th century. From her UN perch, she has now launched a vicious campaign against a fresh target: the newly-installed American Congress."

"Last week, the American House of Representatives adopted legislation that would sanction those associated with the International Criminal Court's (ICC) efforts to demonize and destroy the Jewish state under the banner of so-called "law." In the ICC's appropriation and inversion of legal standards, Jews are criminals for defending their own basic rights - starting with the right to life. The Jewish people have no right to self-determination, and no UN Charter right of self-defense," she added.

Prof. Bayefsky continued, "From this revisionist and libelous standpoint, Albanese castigates the new U.S. Congress for finally confronting the obvious: an international criminal court that can't tell the difference between Palestinian terror and Jewish self-defense, or between genocidaires thirsting for Jewish blood and Jews sending humanitarian aid to the enemy in the hopes of lessening the plight of Arab non-combatants, isn't a neutral legitimate court at all. It's a legal fraud conducting a global pogrom that directly attacks and threatens the common interests and fundamental values of Israelis and Americans."

"Ironically, Albanese's opposition to the Congressional move on the ICC proves Congress got it right. In her almost daily antisemitic rants, Albanese has become an international barometer of right and wrong. Congress and the incoming Trump administration can take heart that Francesca Albanese is not on your side," she said.

Elaborating on the Goebbels comparison, she stated that "The ultimate antisemitic inversion is that the victims of the Nazis are Nazis. UN 'human rights expert' Francesca Albanese has made drawing an analogy between Israelis and Nazis a fixture of her antisemitic tirades. For instance, in her report to the UN General Assembly on October 1, 2024, speaking of the IDF, she said: 'In a manner reminiscent of other genocides, the ensuing vengeful atmosphere prepared the soldiers to become "willing executioners" of the heinous tasks required of them...The movement of displaced Palestinians resembles the death marches of past genocides.'"

"In a tweet from June 22, 2024, she described Gaza as a 'ghetto turned into extermination fields and mass graves.' In a WAFA news release, May 12, 2024, she is quoted as saying: 'How could Israel (the Jews) who suffered the Holocaust commit genocide? This is inconceivable. But that is exactly what Israel is doing now.' In an interview with an Egyptian TV channel on January 8, 2024, she said: 'What happened in the Holocaust, and the persecution of the Jewish people in Europe, and the genocide that happened, must not be repeated by Israel against others.… What I am seeing today reminds me of that tragic experience.… What we need to understand is that this is similar to what happened in the Holocaust.'”

Prof. Bayefsky added that, "This is in addition to another of her stock-in-trades: blaming the victim. She repeatedly blames Israel for October 7th. On October 7, 2023, itself, she tweeted: 'Today’s violence must be put in context. Almost six decades of hostile military rule over an entire civilian population…are in themselves an aggression.' And in an interview with France 24News on July 16, 2024, she said: 'History doesn't start on the 7th of October...How many October 7th's have the Palestinians endured?...Israel has always been a brutal, brutal regime against the Palestinians, and violence, unfortunately, generates violence.'"

"When a person such as Francesca Albanese wholeheartedly embraces the International Criminal Court as a vehicle to target, grab and imprison Israel and its defenders, it tells us far more about the ICC than about Israel," Prof. Bayefsky concluded.