Editorial: As President Joe Biden says, the International Criminal Court move against Israel is outrageous​

On a bleak day for world affairs, when Israel was cited for war crimes in Gaza, there was the small consolation that at least America reacted appropriately.​

President Joe Biden, the leader of a diminishing free world, described a decision of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek the arrest of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as “outrageous” while the US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, called it “shameful”.

Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor, sought the arrests of Mr Netanyahu, his defence minister Yoav Gallant, alongside the Hamas leaders Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.

This disgraceful move places the state of Israel, a highly civilised first world democracy, on a moral par with the Islamic extremist mass murderers of Hamas, who instigated war in the region by targeting and massacring 1,000+ Jewish civilians on the morning of October 7.

For decades, international institutions such as the United Nations have been incoherent and unwieldy at best, farcical and malevolent at worst. Consider the UN’s human rights council, which routinely elects nations that viciously abuse human rights such as China and Russia to its membership.

The ICC is independent of the UN but has the latter’s endorsement. Meanwhile, South Africa – a semi failed and deeply corrupt state – has the nerve to pursue Israel through the parallel International Court of Justice, supported by Ireland.

The appalling ICC development raises serious questions about the UK being a party to the court, which might soon mean that the Israeli prime minister would have to be arrested if he set foot in London, the capital of a trusted ally of Jerusalem.

We have our own problems with the European Convention of Human Rights, which the hypocritical Irish – who have granted the IRA a de facto amnesty – are using to sue the UK on legacy.