December Q&A | Michael Walker & Ash Sarkar

Merry Christmas almost and Welcome to our last stream of 2023 we're keeping it casual so it is a Q&A for you today for which I'm joined by Ash you in that festive Spirit already I'm keeping it very casual and festive I would normally never ever drink on a live stream but it's nearly nearly time for my annual leave the out of office is on so what's there to lose and what is that that looks like a Negroni or something you're drinking a cocktail on on air I am it is an old-fashioned which is my absolute favorite cocktail made with a syrup which has been infused with christmy spices because truly that festive Michael I'm into it oh I'm very jealous I just got a cup of tea and some Haribo um I want an old fashioned maybe later bazu halim asks with all the evidence of war crimes caught on video why aren't Israel and the us being charged Ash do you want to go with that one yeah so there's a a quite straightforward reason which is that the IC can conduct investigations into um war crimes in Israel and Palestine but Israel never signed up to the Rome statute which recognizes the authority of the international criminal court it is not a member of the international criminal court and from the Israeli perspective that makes total sense because if you're an expansionist colonizer and you know that you're going to want to carry out ethnic cleansing you want to maintain an illegal occupation you want to maintain an illegal blockade on Gaza which of course has now turned into the horrific ground Invasion and aerial bombardment why would you want to sign up to a legal framework which would hold you responsible for the things that you do part of the argument that Israel makes is that because Palestine isn't a sovereign state it can't be a member of the ICC um it can't uh sign up to the Rome statute so there's twofold reasons one is if you're Israel and you know you want to do war crimes why would you become a member of the international criminal court and the second thing is that it doesn't recognize Palestine as a sovereign state so it doesn't recognize palestine's ability to sign up to the Rome statute and as far as I know ...