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Benny Tsododo Correspondent
In Zimbabwe and the world over, those who follow the discourse of democracy and its inseparable sub-topic of rule of law, will agree with me that the United States is projected as the paragon of democracy.

The belief is that the US has fully submitted itself to the dictates of democracy, to become a democracy itself.

It has been hoisted, or has hoisted itself, to an uncontested pedestal where it is allowed to preach democracy and unilaterally punish nations deemed to be undemocratic.

As a person daily struggling to live in a country heavily sanctioned by the US for supposedly lacking democracy and rule of law, I can testify to the might of the US in this realm.

However, what I cannot understand is why the same “beacon of democracy” would deny the rule of law to Palestinians. How such a ‘model of democracy’ could resort to blackmail and all other unsavoury tactics to arm twist the embargoed people of Palestine out of their bid to seek justice at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is beyond my comprehension.

Given its vaunted global position on democracy, when the Palestinians recently applied for membership to the ICC, we expected the US to applaud them for choosing a peaceful avenue to claim their inalienable right to justice against alleged brutality at the hands of the Israeli army.

Instead, the US went ballistic and threatened to withdraw its financial support to Palestine. A US Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, called the Palestinian move “a bastardising of the role of the ICC.”

Graham further said: “We will push back strongly to register our displeasure. It is already part of our law that would require us to stop funding if they (Palestinians) actually bring a case.”

It will be worth mentioning that the US provides Palestine with more than $400 million in annual financial support, the withdrawal of which would have devastating consequences for Palestinians already squirming under apartheid policies of Israel.

To make matters worse, Israel has already frozen more than $120 million in tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.

Faced with these scenarios, anyone can guess the shuddering effects of the resultant severe financial constraints on the Palestinian Authority.

As if this was not enough, both the US and Israel last week condemned the ICC for announcing that it was opening a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed against the Palestinians.

A US State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke criticised the move saying: “It is a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighbourhoods, is now being scrutinised by the ICC.”

In its response, Israel announced that it would lobby ICC member-states to cut their funding to the tribunal.

Israeli Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman said; “We will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia and in Germany simply to stop funding it (ICC).

This body represents no one.

It is a political body.

There are quite a few countries that also think there is no justification for this body’s existence.”

Describing the Israeli army as the “most moral army in the world”, Lieberman said the purpose of the preliminary probe by the ICC was to “try to harm Israel’s right to defend itself from terror” saying the decision was “solely motivated by political anti-Israel considerations.”

It is not only clear from the above submissions that the Palestinian universal right to legal recourse is being scuttled but also that the existence of the ICC is under threat from the US and Israel.

If Israel succeeds in convincing its ‘friends’ to stop funding the ICC, then the tribunal’s operations would be scuttled thus sounding a death knell to global justice.

With a tainted image of solely targeting Africans for prosecution, the ICC had a chance to use the Israeli case to exculpate its integrity.

Unfortunately, this is likely not to be since the US and Israel have vowed to throttle its operations.

Where I come from, threatening litigants or exhibiting contempt of a court is a punishable criminal offence.

By the same rule, the US and Israel have exhibited a criminal conduct that is likely to threaten the delivery of justice and democracy in the world.

The ICC can only turn a blind eye to the disdainful behaviour of the two countries at the expense of eroding at its own integrity.

It is advisable that the tribunal must take action, even if that action could simply be confined to issuing a strong statement castigating the US and Israel for undermining global justice.

By seeking to block Palestinians from accessing justice and also threatening the existence of the ICC, the US has proved to be a dimming beacon of democracy that is morphing into an albatross around the neck of international justice.