George Clooney complained to White House about Biden’s criticism of ICC
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George Clooney's wife, Mrs Amal Clooney, a prominent human rights lawyer, served on an advisory panel that helped conduct the court’s investigation.
PHOTO: AFP
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WASHINGTON – Actor George Clooney contacted a top White House official in May to complain after President Joe Biden criticised the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to seek a warrant against top Israeli officials over the war in the Gaza Strip, a case his wife had worked on, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Mrs Amal Clooney, a prominent human rights lawyer, served on an advisory panel that helped conduct the court’s investigation, which resulted in warrant requests for Israel’s prime minister and defence minister
Mr Clooney lodged his protest with Mr Steve Ricchetti, a counsellor to Mr Biden who played a pivotal role in his fund-raising efforts four years ago. It had no effect on US policy, a senior administration official said on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly.
Nonetheless, Mr Clooney’s decision to contact the White House (in the form of a text message, one of the people said) underscores the problems that Israel’s actions have caused for Mr Biden as he tries to reconcile his support for a stalwart ally with his own misgivings and increased pressure from the disillusioned American left.
To illustrate that dilemma: Mr Clooney is scheduled to appear at a high-dollar June 15 fund raiser for Mr Biden in Los Angeles, with former president Barack Obama in attendance.
In a fund-raising e-mail sent on behalf of the Biden-Harris campaign on June 8, Mr Clooney said: “Joe and Kamala’s message of hope and belief in a better future for all is one that I believe in.”
Mr Simon Halls, a spokesman for the actor, declined to comment about Mr Clooney’s interaction with Mr Ricchetti but said his client “has every intention of attending the fund raiser”.
A White House spokesperson had no comment on Mr Clooney’s complaint, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post.
Row over Israel
The US and Israel are not members of the ICC, which is in The Hague, Netherlands.
After the court’s chief prosecutor announced that he would seek the warrants on May 20, Mr Biden sharply criticised the decision
In a statement posted on her family foundation’s website, Mrs Clooney said she worked with the court’s prosecutors for four months
Mrs Clooney, a Lebanon-born lawyer, worked as an investigator on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and prosecuted members of Hezbollah accused of assassinating Lebanon’s prime minister in 2005.
In May, she co-signed an op-ed with other members of an ICC advisory panel arguing that their investigation had found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant “have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
Their report found sufficient evidence to charge the Israeli leaders with the war crime of “intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the murder and persecution of Palestinians as crimes against humanity”.
The House voted mostly along party lines on June 4 to impose sweeping sanctions on the ICC by forcing Mr Biden to restrict entry into the US, revoke visas and impose financial restrictions on anyone at the court involved in trying to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute “protected persons”, or allies of the US.
It would also target anyone who provides “financial, material or technological support” to those efforts.
Mr Biden’s advisers said he “strongly opposed” the measure because it would impose sanctions on such a broad swathe of officials, including court staff members and any witnesses involved in a potential case.
But it reflected cracks in the Democratic coalition, and broad bipartisan anger at the ICC, with 42 Democrats crossing party lines to support the Republican-backed measure. NYTIMES
