The International Criminal Court refused on Tuesday to consider a war crimes tribunal against Israel for its military assault on the Gaza Strip in 2009 or for other possible criminal acts in occupied Palestine. Israel welcomed the news. Amnesty International called the ICC’s move “dangerous.”

MICHAEL MANDEL, MMandel at osgoode.yorku.ca

Author of “How America Gets Away With Murder, Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage and Crimes Against Humanity,” Mandel said today: “It’s disgraceful but not surprising that the ICC has dismissed Palestine’s complaint against Israel. It sat on the complaint for over three years, always proudly announcing that it was investigating it to give the appearance of impartiality. Meanwhile the ICC jumped to attention in less than three weeks when the U.S. government, which is not a signatory to the treaty, wanted to go to war against Libya, justifying Western aggression with bogus charges against the Libyan regime.”

Mandel added that prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno “Ocampo and company have been busy putting Africa on trial for crimes aided, abetted and exploited by the rich countries, while the U.S. government killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and tens of thousands of Afghans, and Israel has been committing Nuremberg’s ‘supreme international crime’ of aggression against the Palestinians for 45 years.

“Good riddance to Ocampo [who is stepping down], but I doubt his replacement will be any better. The ICC was a hoax from the start.”

Also, see: “ICC Prosecutor Courts Hollywood With Invisible Children” regarding Kony2012.