NGOs file ICC case against Israeli commanders over killing of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza

Al Jazeera English

Two NGOs are bringing a case before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, against senior Israeli military commanders for allegedly authorising the murder of the four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelancers. The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) have named the Israeli chief of general staff and seven others. They also accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “presiding over a strategy to eliminate journalists.” Their case is based on investigations reconstructing the attack, intelligence reports and expert military analysis.  Dyab Abou Janjah is the Chairman at Hind Rajab Foundation.  He says court cases stand a chance of holding individuals responsible, for killing journalists.  Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe Follow us on X: https://x.com/ajenglish Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera Check our website:  https://www.aljazeera.com Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/aljazeeraenglish Download AJE Mobile App: https://aje.io/AJEMobile  #Palestine #Gaza #Israel #IsraelGazaWar #GazaWar #GazaJournalists #AnasAlSharif #AlJazeeraGazaJournalists #PressFreedom #AttacksOnJournalists #StopKillingJournalists #HumanRights #JournalismIsNotACrime #NotATarget #WarCrimes #Justice #HumanRights #TheHague #ICC #HRF #PCHR #AlJazeeraEnglish  # news #breaking #24x7

Transcript

00:00Two non-governmental organizations, NGOs, are bringing a case before the UN's top court

00:05against senior Israeli military commanders for allegedly authorizing the murder of those four

00:10Al Jazeera journalists. The Hind Rajab Foundation and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights have

00:14named the Israeli Chief of General Staff and seven others. They also accuse Prime Minister

00:18Benjamin Netanyahu of presiding over a strategy to eliminate journalists. Of course, the ICC has

00:24already issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and the former Defense Minister Yoav Galant for war

00:29crimes. Joining us now is Dayab Abu Janja, the chairman at Hind Rajab Foundation. It is a

00:36non-profit organization mainly dedicated to the quest for justice in response to the crimes

00:40against humanity, war crimes and human rights violations against Palestinians. He joins us

00:45live now from Brussels. Thank you so much for joining us. Will this court filing, if you will,

00:52make any difference? Of course. Every filing can make a difference, but it is something for the long

01:00run. It is a cumulative effort. This filing and other filings and the fact that these crimes are

01:07being documented and are being put on the record of the ICC, but also of national prosecutors across the

01:15planet, that cases have are being brought against individuals, not just against political leaders,

01:22but against rank and file, against officers, against soldiers in many cases, is very important. It is

01:30something for the long haul. It is it is something that requires a lot of patience, but it is something

01:36that is instrumental in seeking justice. And we are convinced that this justice eventually

01:43will be served. Yeah, but you've done extensive work examining what happened two days ago.

01:53Give us a sense of what the chain of command was like and who you've identified as being the culprits.

02:00Yes, of course, in this kind of, let's say, open source intelligence forensic work, you have to depart

02:08from the smallest level and go and build up to the highest echelon in the chain of command. So what we

02:17try to do is not to jump immediately to the political responsibility, because it's quite obvious that

02:21Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers are responsible for the systematic targeting of journalists and Gaza

02:29since the beginning of the genocide. However, what we try to establish is who shot the missile. And so we identified the

02:41drone type that was used. And then we could link that to one or two squadrons. But we are quite sure that it's one

02:51squadron called the Black Cobra, Black Snake Squadron, which is operating Hermes class drones. And then, of course,

03:01this is connected to the type of rocket that was used, which is a spike class type. You know, it's quite targeted

03:07because, as you know, the Israelis totally confessed that they were wanting or that they wanted to kill and killed

03:16Anas al-Sharif. So if you build upon that, then you end up at the Palmahim airbase, where these drones are being

03:24operated by several squadrons. Of course, then we filed against the squadron commander, we filed against

03:30the commander of the Palmahim airbase. And then you build up to the responsibility, obviously, of the Israeli

03:37Air Force commander, but also the chief of staff, including also some responsibility for the unit 8200,

03:44which gathers intelligence, military intelligence, cyber intelligence, and actually was spying and

03:51using the data of the phones of not only Anas, but also other journalists to assassinate them. So

03:59it's a complex image. And we wanted to make it clear that this is something that involves a lot of

04:05planning and that involves also decision up to the highest echelon of the chain of command.

04:10And the thing is, it's now become a systematic playbook. You start smearing the person first,

04:17and then it goes from there.

04:20Exactly. Exactly. And this is also why we targeted in our filing, we targeted Abhigai Adray,

04:27who is the head of the Arab media unit within the Israeli propaganda machine, because,

04:34you know, this targeting, this smearing is not just smearing, it is actually preparing the ground

04:40for the assassination. It is part of the crime. So it was very important also to observe and to

04:48compare. We did not only file and related to the assassination of Anas al-Sharif and his colleagues,

04:54but also we added several files that have been meticulously documented through a period of,

05:02you know, assassination to show that there is a, indeed, as you say, a playbook, there is a system

05:08that is being used and deployed, which is, you know, accuse these journalists of being covered

05:14terrorists and then pass to threats and eventually end up killing them. And the idea, of course,

05:21the goal is to totally, you know, blind the operational scene in Gaza. And the assassination

05:31of Anas is definitely connected to the fact that the Israelis at this moment are planning to escalate

05:38their onslaught on Gaza. So this is something that is very sinister and very, you know, cynically

05:45insane. It is, it is the, the level of impunity with which the Israelis are communicating about this

05:54is something that is, you know, that should shake everyone. You know, not only on the level of the

06:00humanity, but on the level of the hubris and the dangerous mindset of this, of this Israeli state at the

06:08moment. And the thing is, it was entirely contemptuous of human norms and values and decency. It was

06:15blunt. It was almost arrogant, if you will. And what made it even perhaps doubly worse was that Anas

06:22knew that it was coming. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, you know, just for the sake of the

06:28argument, even though this is totally judicially nonsense, I mean, they're saying that, you know,

06:35the targets or, or Anas al-Sharif in that case is sympathetic to Hamas and showing some, you know,

06:41pictures and some other stuff. But even if it was the case, you know, even if someone was or is,

06:49which I'm not saying it is because it's totally fabricated, but even if he was, and he is not

06:54today, he is non-combatant, he's a journalist. I mean, for God's sake, even when you have prisoners

07:00of war who were combating you, who were combatant five minutes ago, and when they surrender and

07:06they drop their weapon and they are not armed, they are no more combatant and killing them is a

07:10war crime. Just to show you the level of, you know, disregard of international rules that the

07:16Israelis are operating with, because they know this very well. I mean, it is totally, you know,

07:21shocking to me from a legal perspective. But of course, as you said, also on the human level,

07:27but I guess on the human level, we've already seen this, you know, the last two years. But

07:32this behavior shows now that they are totally gone wrong in terms that they are not caring anymore

07:40in sugarcoating any of the murders that they are committing. And they are not at all caring about

07:45what the international law says. And his words echo across the world, do they not? If these words of

07:56mine reach you, you know that Israel has succeeded in killing me and silencing my voice. The Abu

08:01Janja is chairman of the Hind Rajab Foundation.

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