An apparently earnest man wants to hold Israel and Italy responsible for the death of Christ :
A Kenyan lawyer has filed a petition with the International Court of Justice in The Hague, suggesting that the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ was unlawful, and the State of Israel among others should be held responsible, Kenyan news outlet the Nairobian reported on Friday.Dola Indidis, a lawyer and former spokesman of the Kenyan Judiciary is reportedly attempting to sue Tiberius (emperor of Rome, 42 BCE-37 CE), Pontius Pilate, a selection of Jewish elders, King Herod, the Republic of Italy and the State of Israel . . . .
“I filed the case because it’s my duty to uphold the dignity of Jesus and I have gone to the ICJ to seek justice for the man from Nazareth,” Indidis told the Nairobian. “His selective and malicious prosecution violated his human rights through judicial misconduct, abuse of office bias and prejudice.”
Indidis apparently named the states of Italy and Israel in the lawsuit because upon the attainment of independence, the two states incorporated the laws of the Roman Empire, those in force at the time of the crucifixion . . . .
“I am suing as a friend,” he said.
Indidis insisted on the validity of his case, saying “I know with a matter of fact and truth we have a good case with a high probability of success and I hope it is done in my lifetime.”
When asked about the case, an official from the ICJ told legal news website Legal Cheek, “The ICJ has no jurisdiction for such a case. The ICJ settles disputes between states. It is not even theoretically possible for us to consider this case.”
The case is a legal joke but reflects a real cultural problem. Anti-semitism increasingly wears the garb of anti-zionism, and crimes once assigned to Jews individually are now assigned to the State of Israel. Jews are no longer thieves, but the State of Israel stole its land. They no longer hold all honest Christians under their thumbs, just the Palestinian people. Now we learn that though the Jews aren’t responsible for killing Christ, the State of Israel is. This switch from racial to national perfidy never quite absolves individual Jews, who are called on (for starters) to renounce, divest, and boycott.
As Nostra Aetate recognizes, what happened in Christ’s passion “cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.” For this reason, the council fathers said, “in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”
