Who are the criminals?

New York: Pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked US campuses for weeks are quietening down after a series of clashes with police, mass arrests and a stern White House directive to restore order.

But things are heating up politically over Israel’s attack on Gaza.

And International Criminal Court prosecutor has warned against unspecified threats and intimidation, amid speculation the ICC will issue arrest warrants over the war in Gaza.

The Hague-based ICC did not say if the comment related to its investigation into possible war crimes by Israel or Palestinian groups in Gaza and the West Bank.

The office of ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on X, formerly Twitter, that it was aware of “significant public interest” in its activities and said it sought to “engage constructively with all stakeholders.” But it added that the court’s “independence and impartiality are undermined, however, when individuals threaten to retaliate against the court or against court personnel.

“Such threats, even not acted upon, may constitute an offence” against the ICC’s “administration of justice”, it warned, calling for an end to such activity.

US and Israeli media reports have suggested the ICC prosecutor could issue warrants against both Israeli politicians – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and Hamas leaders.

Netanyahu said the ICC was “contemplating issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli government and military officials as war criminals”.

“This would be an outrage of historic proportions,” he said, alleging the ICC was “trying to put Israel in the dock”.

The United States says it also opposes the ICC probe into Israel’s conduct in Gaza, arguing it has no jurisdiction.

Neither the US nor Israel are members of the court.

The ICC opened a probe in 2021 into Israel, as well as Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups, over possible war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Khan has said this investigation now “extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the (Hamas) attacks that took place on October 7, 2023”.

The ICC has previously issued warrants for national leaders – most recently Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine – although that has been ignored.

Meanwhile students not just in the US but in Europe and Australia have set up encampments at universities.

The American campuses have seen violent clashes with police and also counter-protesters, who were enraged by the pro-Palestinians replacing American flags with Palestinian ones and used Nazi-like tactics to prevent Jewish students from entering.

Yesterday police at Manhattan cleared an encampment at New York University after sunrise, with video posted to social media by an official showing protesters exiting their tents and dispersing when ordered to do so.

The scene appeared relatively calm compared to crackdowns at other campuses around the country.

University administrators, who have tried to balance the right to protest and complaints of violence and hate speech, have increasingly called on police to clear out the demonstrators ahead of end of school year exams and graduation ceremonies.

At the University of Chicago, law enforcement appeared set to dismantle an encampment after the school’s president said talks with protesters on a compromise had failed.

Before the clearing operation began, dozens of American flag-wielding counter-protesters showed up and confronted the pro-Palestinian group, but police separated the two sides.

More than 2000 arrests have been made in the past two weeks across the United States, some during violent confrontations with police, giving rise to accusations of use of excessive force.

President Joe Biden, who has faced pressure from all political sides over the conflict in Gaza, gave his first expansive remarks on the protests Thursday, saying that “order must prevail”.

His remarks came hours after police moved in on demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles.

A large police contingent forcibly cleared the sprawling encampment while flashbangs were launched to disperse crowds gathered outside.

On the US east coast, protesters at New Jersey’s Rutgers University agreed to take down their camp after reaching a compromise with administrators – a similar deal to one made at Brown University in Rhode Island.

Republicans have accused Biden of being soft on what they say is anti-Semitic sentiment among the protesters.

“There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for anti-Semitism, or threats of violence against Jewish students,” Biden said.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona echoed the condemnation in a letter to university leaders, pledging to investigate reports of anti-Semitism “aggressively,” CNN reported.

In Paris, police moved in to clear students staging a sit-in while protesters took over Berlin’s Humboldt University. And encampment has grown at Canada’s prestigious McGill University.