US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday lambasted the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor’s office for demanding arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense chief, saying he would work with lawmakers “to find an appropriate response” to the move.

The ICC’s chief prosecutor on Monday officially requested arrest warrants for the Israeli premier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas terrorist leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Al-Masri, and Ismail Haniyeh — accusing all five men of “bearing criminal responsibility” for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel or the Gaza Strip.

US and Israeli officials issued blistering condemnations of the ICC move, decrying the court for drawing a moral equivalence between Israel’s democratically elected leaders and the heads of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that launched the ongoing war in Gaza with its Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel.

Appearing before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee the next day, Blinken was pressed on whether he would support imposing sanctions on the ICC in response to its decision.

“As you know, within the last administration, the Trump people did an executive order to do sanctions on certain members of the ICC who are investigating us for things that happened in Afghanistan,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the ranking member of the committee, said to Blinken. “President Biden’s administration came in and dissolved that executive order, as you know.”

Risch then grilled Blinken on whether he would back a “legislative approach” to prevent the ICC from “sticking its nose in the business of countries that have an independent, legitimate, democratic judicial system.”

“Can you support this?” Risch continued. “Obviously, the devil’s in the details in the legislation. But, do you think you could support a legislative approach to this?”

Blinken stated that he would be willing to work with both Republicans and Democrats on a “bipartisan basis to find an appropriate response” to the ICC targeting Israeli leaders.

Blinken added that the Biden administration originally lifted sanctions and visa restrictions on the ICC shortly after US President Joe Biden took office in 2021 with the goal of protecting American military personnel who served in Afghanistan. The top US diplomat claimed that the administration succeeded in its original goal but suggested that Monday’s actions by the ICC could lead policymakers in Washington to reverse course.

“Given the events of yesterday, I think we have to look at the appropriate steps to take to deal with, again, what is a profoundly wrong-headed decision,” Blinken said.

Republican leaders in the US Congress have threatened to push legislation that would impose sanctions on the ICC in response to its decision to seek arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

On Monday, Blinken released a statement condemning the ICC for its decision to target Israel over its handling of the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Blinken said the US “fundamentally rejects” the ICC’s announcement.

“Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans,” he added. “We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful.”

Blinken said that the ICC had “no jurisdiction over this matter,” noting that both Israel and the US are not parties of the Rome Statute, the international treaty that established the court.

The ICC claims it has jurisdiction over Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank since Palestinian leaders agreed in 2015 to be bound by the court’s founding principles.

Regardless, Blinken said, the court’s treatment of Israel had undermined its “legitimacy and credibility.”

A panel of ICC judges will now consider the prosecutor’s application for the arrest warrants and whether there is sufficient evidence to issue them.

The post Blinken Blasts ICC Request for Netanyahu’s Arrest, Says He’ll Work With Congress on Response to ‘Shameful’ Move first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Australian actress Cate Blanchett attended the premiere of “The Apprentice” at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on Monday wearing a gown that, according to some observers, appeared to be a show of solidarity with Palestinians amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.

The Oscar winner, 55, wore a custom color-blocked gown by Colombian-French designer Haider Ackermann for Jean Paul Gaultier from the Spring 2023 Haute Couture collection, which was released after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. Blanchett’s dress had a blush pink silk satin back and emerald silk satin lining. She added a necklace made from repurposed pearls and diamonds while attending the premiere of her film at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France. While posing on the red carpet, the actress lifted the back of the dress to draw attention to the emerald green lining.

The original dress that walked the runway in January was shorter and had a lime green back and purple satin lining. Blanchett changed the colors of the gown for the Cannes Film Festival on Monday and, against the backdrop of the red carpet, some people claimed it looked similar to the black, white, and green Palestinian flag — especially since the blush pink part of her gown photographed as white.

Several social media users suggested that the actress “coordinated her outfit to look like the flag of #Palestine” while others called it a “Palestine-inspired dress.” One social media user who shared a photo of Blanchett in the Jean Paul Gaultier gown said the actress was “using one’s influence for a good cause [and] reminding where good humans stand: for liberation, against genocidal occupation.”

THIS WOMAN

Cate Blanchett aka Galadriel from the Lord of the Rings knew that the carpet at Cannes Film Festival would be red, so she designed her outfit in Black White & Green, so that when she stands on red carpet, it looks like the flag of Palestine pic.twitter.com/mXvDkzn9zz

— Waseem ವಸೀಮ್ وسیم (@WazBLR) May 21, 2024

Cate Blanchett aka Queen Hela showing solidarity with Palestine at Cannes Film Festival. We stan. pic.twitter.com/Zw7hzfnltB

— Ikhwan (@JatIkhwan) May 21, 2024

Vogue Arabia‘s Editor Livia Giuggioli Firth also seemed to think Blanchett’s gown was a nod to Palestinians. She posted on Instagram a picture of Blanchett wearing the gown on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival and wrote in the caption, “I LOVE U CATE cannes #cannesfilmfestival when the carpet has meaning.”

In October, after the Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, Blanchett joined other celebrities in signing a letter addressed to US President Joe Biden that urged him to call for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza. The following month, Blanchett — who is a goodwill ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) — called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip while addressing the European Parliament Plenary Session.

“I am not Syrian. I am not Ukrainian. I am not Yemeni. I am not Afghani. I am not from South Sudan. I am not from Israel or Palestine. I am not a politician. I am not even a pundit. But I am a witness,” she said. “And having witnessed the human cost of war, violence and persecution visiting refugees from across the globe, I cannot look away.”

Blanchett and Ackermann have not commented on the dress and if it was intentionally made to resemble the Palestinian flag.

The post Cate Blanchett Appears to Show Palestinian Solidarity With Gown on Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Lisa Goldman reported on Israel-Palestine through the Second Intifada, the 2006 Lebanon War, and the Arab Spring. In 2010, she was part of the founding team of the independent reporting outlet +972 Magazine. She ended a decade-long reporting hiatus shortly before Oct. 7. Today she is based in Montreal and works as a contributing editor at New […]

The post Lisa Goldman, a Canadian who has reported on Israel for years, takes a frank look at the state of journalism and the prospects for stability in the region appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.