The Forward reports:

By the age of 14, he had survived the Holocaust; by 44, he was an Israeli diplomat; now, at the age of 94, Theodor Meron recommended the International Criminal Court seek arrest warrants of Israeli and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Meron, a New York University professor emeritus who has served as legal counsel for both the U.S. and Israeli governments, was one of eight legal and academic experts who were convened in January at the request of ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to review evidence of possible crimes during the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict.

Based on the panel’s unanimous findings, Khan decided that he would seek charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders, including Yehiya Sinwar. Khan’s announcement on Monday caused an uproar.

President Biden called it “outrageous,” and Netanyahu has named Khan as one of the “great antisemites in modern times.” The support for the arrest warrant of Amal Clooney, a human rights lawyer and George Clooney’s spouse, has received much attention; that of Meron, the only panel member to have served in the Israeli military, has barely been noted.

Meron was born in 1930 into a middle-class Jewish family in Kalisz, Poland.

“By the age of 9, I was out of school,” he said in a 2008 speech for the American Council of Learned Societies. “Ghettos and work camps followed, with most of my family falling victim to the Holocaust.”

After the war, Meron emigrated to Israel, where he finished high school. He did his military service before studying law at the University of Jerusalem, Harvard University and Cambridge University. [Continue reading…]