Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXV: "P/Crime Minister"
lying on ruins
an armless boy's thousand-yard stare
in smoky darkness ...
the ICC's arrest warrant
for the P/Crime Minister
FYI: "The thousand-yard stare or two-thousand-yard stare is a military phrase coined to describe the limp, unfocused gaze of a battle-weary soldier, but the symptom it describes may also be found among victims of other types of trauma."
And for more poems about the ICC's arrest warrants, see Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on International Criminal Court (ICC)'s Arrest Warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant and Hamas Leader
NBC News, Nov. 21: ICC issues arrest warrants for Israeli PM Netanyahu and ex-defense minister Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas official Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif.
In its announcement Thursday the ICC rejected challenges from Israel to its jurisdiction. It said the warrants issued for Netanyahu and Gallant were related to "crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October, 2023 until at least 20 May, 2024," including "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts." It also said reasonable grounds were found to believe they bore criminal responsibility as "civilian superiors" for the war crime of "intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population."
Netanyahu and Gallant were accused of having "intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity."
And Reuters, Nov.23: ICC warrants are binding, EU cannot pick and choose, EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says
The states that signed the Rome convention are obliged to implement the decision of the court. It's not optional...I have the right to criticise the decisions of the Israeli government, be it Mr Netanyahu or someone else, without being accused of antisemitism. This is not acceptable.
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXV: "shadow voices"
alive and safe now...
and yet these shadow voices
haunt, haunting him
like US-made bunker busters
that silence everything below
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXVII: "this bloody war"
eating once a day
in a tent the white-haired man
waits for Donald Trump
moaning, either he'll kill us
or he'll end this bloody war
FYI: CBS News, Nov. 18: Palestinians' hopes and fears as Trump heads back to the White House
The question, Mustafa Barghouti said, is "how you stop the war? Do you stop it by annexing occupied territories? By ethnically cleansing Palestinians? Or do you stop the war by forcing Israel to end its illegal policy of settling Israelis on our land?"
