George Clooney rang the White House and shredded a Biden aide after the President attacked an attempt by Clooney’s lawyer wife to jail the Prime Minister of Israel, it emerged on Thursday.
Amal Clooney signed off a bid by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court last month to seek the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu alongside Hamas leaders for war crimes – a move the President denounced as ‘outrageous’.
A furious Biden insisted there was ‘no moral equivalence’ between Israel and Hamas and hinted at sanctions against the court which could have seen Clooney’s wife deported from the US.
The Oscar winning actor vented his fury after being put through to Biden’s senior counsellor Steve Ricchetti, the Washington Post reported, and his high-profile wife remains unrepentant about her role.
‘I do not accept that any conflict should be beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator should be above the law,’ she said in a statement.
George Clooney visited the White House where he was honored by the President in 2022
Clooney’s human rights lawyer wife 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 chest.
But the row has cast doubt over whether he will take part in one of Biden’s biggest fundraising efforts of 2024 next Saturday when he was due to be the star attraction at an LA gala alongside former president Barack Obama, TV host Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts.
The backlash to the court’s unprecedented move continued this week when the House passed a bill the would impose sanctions on the court.
But the White House has rowed back on its initial fury claiming that sanctions are ‘not the right answer’ to the court’s ‘overreach’.
It said it would ‘strongly oppose’ a House bill it claims ‘could require sanctions against court staff, judges, witnesses, and US allies and partners who provide even limited, targeted support to the court in a range of aspects of its work’.
Congress last week gave Netanyahu an open invitation to address both houses and House Speaker Mike Johnson denounced Biden’s backsliding.
‘It’s alarming that the Biden administration continues to undermine Israel and now, 155 House Democrats have voted to give the ICC a free pass to target our allies and undermine US national security interests,’ he said.
Amal Clooney signed off a bid by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court last month to seek the arrest of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and the country’s defense minister Yoav Gallant, right, for war crimes in Gaza
Chief prosecutor Karim Khan, seen on a 2022 visit to Ukraine, accused the pair of using ‘starvation as a method of warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza
More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israel’s attack on Gaza according to a count by the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave
Dozens more people were killed in an Israeli strike on a UN-run school in Gaza’s Nusseirat refugee camp on Thursday
The row was sparked by the May 20 announcement that court prosecutor Karim Khan was seeking to charge Netanyahu alongside 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 warfare, together with other attacks and collective punishment 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 the six legal experts who helped the British prosecutor Karim Khan come to his decision.
‘I support the historic step that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has taken to bring justice to victims of atrocities in Israel and Palestine,’ she 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’s. 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 was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors.
The actor and the politician, pictured together in 2009, have been friends for years but the row has cast doubt on Clooney’s involvement in a star-studded fundraiser for Biden’s re-election that was due to take place in LA on Saturday
Months later Biden appointed him to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
Neither Israel or the US recognize the court but, if the warrant is issued, Netanyahu, Gallant and the Hamas leaders face arrest should they visit any of the 122 countries that do.
More than 36,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since it invaded the Palestinian enclave in response to the October 7 Hamas terror attack that claimed the lives of 1,200 people.
Israel has slammed the court’s move as a ‘baseless blood libel’ against the country, while its President Isaac Herzog called the move ‘outrageous,’ insisting it ‘cannot be accepted by anyone’.
‘The blood libel will not deter Israel from defending itself and accomplishing all its just war objectives in Gaza,’ an Israeli official added.
Hamas too rejected the court’s move saying it ‘strongly denounces the attempts of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to equate the victim with the executioner’.