George Clooney called the White House and trashed a Biden aide after the president attacked an attempt by Clooney’s lawyer wife to jail Israel’s Prime Minister, it emerged Thursday.
Amal Clooney last month signed a request from the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu along with Hamas leaders for war crimes, a move the president denounced as “scandalous.”
A furious Biden insisted there was “no moral equivalence” between Israel and Hamas and hinted at sanctions against the court that could have led to Clooney’s wife being deported from the United States.
The Oscar-winning actor vented his fury after being contacted by Biden’s senior advisor, Steve Ricchetti, the Washington Post reported, and his prominent wife remains unrepentant about her role.
“I do not accept that any conflict is outside the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator is above the law,” he said in a statement.
George Clooney visited the White House where he was honored by the President in 2022
Clooney’s wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, was also among the guests.
The A-list couple have long been among the president’s biggest supporters and the actor donated more than $500,000 to Biden’s 2020 election campaign.
He also co-hosted an online fundraiser that contributed $7 million to his 2020 war fund.
But the dispute has cast doubt on whether he will participate in one of Biden’s biggest fundraising efforts in 2024 next Saturday, when he was due to be the star attraction at a gala in Los Angeles alongside former President Barack Obama, the television host. Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts. .
The reaction to the court’s unprecedented action continued this week when the House passed a bill that would impose sanctions on the court.
But the White House has walked back its initial fury, saying sanctions are “not the right response” to the court’s “overreach.”
He said he would “strongly oppose” a House bill that he says “could require sanctions against court staff, judges, witnesses, and U.S. allies and partners who provide even limited, targeted support to the court.” in a variety of aspects of their work.
Last week, Congress openly invited Netanyahu to address both chambers, and House Speaker Mike Johnson denounced Biden’s retreat.
“It is alarming that the Biden administration continues to undermine Israel and now, 155 House Democrats have voted to give the ICC a free hand to attack our allies and undermine US national security interests,” he said.
Amal Clooney last month signed a request from the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and the country’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (right) for war crimes in Gaza.
Chief prosecutor Karim Khan, seen on a visit to Ukraine in 2022, accused the pair of using “starvation as a method of war, along with other attacks and collective punishments against the civilian population of Gaza.”
More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israel’s attack on Gaza according to a Health Ministry tally in the Hamas-run enclave.
Dozens more people were killed on Thursday in an Israeli attack on a UN-run school in the Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza.
The dispute was sparked by the May 20 announcement that prosecutor Karim Khan was seeking to charge Netanyahu along with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and two other Hamas leaders with war crimes. and crimes against humanity.
He accused the Israeli government of using “starvation as a method of war, along with other attacks and collective punishments against the civilian population of Gaza.”
“They include malnutrition, dehydration, profound suffering and an increasing number of deaths among the Palestinian population, including babies, other children and women,” he added.
It soon emerged that Amal Clooney, a renowned human rights lawyer, was one of six legal experts who helped British prosecutor Karim Khan make his decision.
“I support the historic step taken by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to bring justice to the victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine,” he said in a statement issued by the couple’s Clooney Foundation.
‘As a human rights lawyer, I will never accept that one child’s life has less value than another. I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law.’
The actor and the president have known each other for years and the couple visited the White House in December 2022 when he received the Kennedy Center Honors.
The actor and politician, photographed together in 2009, have been friends for years, but the dispute has thrown into doubt Clooney’s participation in a star-studded fundraiser for Biden’s re-election that was due to take place in Los Angeles on Saturday .
Months later, Biden appointed him to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.
Neither Israel nor the United States recognize the court, but if the order is issued, Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leaders face arrest if they visit any of the 122 countries that do so.
More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since they invaded the Palestinian enclave in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 1,200 people.
Israel has criticized the court’s move as a “baseless blood libel” against the country, while its president Isaac Herzog called the move “scandalous,” insisting that “no one can accept it.”
“The blood libel will not deter Israel from defending itself and achieving all its just war goals in Gaza,” an Israeli official added.
Hamas also rejected the court’s move, saying it “strongly denounces the attempts by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to equate the victim with the executioner.”