Justice Minister Yariv Levin blasted the International Criminal Court (ICC) for seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant:
“The decision, the purpose of which is an attempt to deny the State of Israel the right of self-defense, and the comparison between Israel’s leaders and the many murderers at the head of Hamas are a clear expression of modern antisemitism and hatred of Jews wherever they are,” he says in a statement.Khan is also seeking warrants against three Hamas leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.“The State of Israel will continue to fight a just war of defense against terrorism, in the most moral manner and according to international law,” Levin pledges.“The citizens of Israel, and many of our friends around the world, today stand strongly behind the prime minister, the leadership of the country, the IDF and the security forces,” he says in a statement conspicuously lacking Gallant’s name.
President Joe Biden also slammed the decision in an emailed press release:
The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous. And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken also disagreed with the ICC:
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the Biden administration “fundamentally rejects” Khan’s decision.“We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans,” Blinken says in his own statement.The secretary of state reiterates the long-held US stance that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in no small part due to the fact that Israel — and the US — are not members of the court.“The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here, amid the prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants, rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed,” Blinken says.
The ICC managed to bring together Netanyahu’s side with the opposition, as 106 of the 120 members of the Israeli parliament condemned the decision:
“The state of Israel is in the midst of a just war against a criminal terror organization. The IDF is the most moral army in the world. Our heroic soldiers are fighting with courage and dedication that has no second, according to international law, like no other army has ever done.”The scandalous comparison by the Hague prosecutor between Israel’s leaders and the heads of terror organizations is an unerasable historic crime and a clear expression of antisemitism. We reject this with revulsion. 80 years after the Holocaust, no one will block the Jewish state from defending itself.”
Those who did not sign belong to the Hadash-Ta’al, Ra’am, and Labor parties.
Labor MK Naama Lazimi described the petition as “meaningless” and called it a “pawn in Bibi’s game to receive legitimization and fortify his corrupt and bad government.”
Lazimi found the ICC decision “disgraceful” but added that “it was also part of Netanyahu’s ‘total failure’ in running the war.”
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan wants arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant, Hamas Leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, and Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Khan claims Netanyahu and Gallant committed:
Khan cites supposed evidence from “survivors and eyewitnesses, authenticated video, photo and audio material, satellite imagery and statements from the alleged perpetrator group.”
The alleged evidence “shows that Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.”
Khan also claims Hamas committed the following war crimes:
“My Office submits that the war crimes alleged in these applications were committed in the context of an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, and a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas running in parallel,” stated Khan. “We submit that the crimes against humanity charged were part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Israel by Hamas and other armed groups pursuant to organisational policies. Some of these crimes, in our assessment, continue to this day.”
Why hasn’t the ICC gone after Russian President Vladimir Putin? Did the court ever go after Syria or Iran?
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