ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and Hamas leader
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.
In a statement, the Netherlands-based court said it had ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe that Netanyahu is criminally responsible for war crimes such as ‘starvation as a method of warfare’, as well as ‘the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts’.
On the other hand, the ICC said it found ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe that Deif was responsible for ‘crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, torture and rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture, hostage-taking, outrages upon personal dignity and rape and other forms of sexual violence’. Israel claimed to have killed Deif - one of the masterminds of 7 October - in an air strike in September, although Hamas has yet to confirm his death.
The basis for the warrants dates back to last May, when the court's prosecutor, Karim Khan, charged Netanyahu and Gallant with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Khan also requested the issuance of arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, who were killed in August and October respectively.
The Israeli authorities have rejected the accusations by the International Criminal Court, a body they describe as ‘biased and discriminatory’, according to a statement from Israel's Prime Minister's Office.
The antisemitic decision of the International Criminal Court is a modern Dreyfus trial – and will end the same way.
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 21, 2024
Israel utterly rejects the false and absurd charges of the International Criminal Court, a biased and discriminatory political body.https://t.co/slCeoZ4fbX
‘There is no more just war than the one Israel has been waging in Gaza since 7 October 2023, when the Hamas terrorist organisation launched a murderous assault and perpetrated the largest massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,’ the statement said.
The Prime Minister's Office also notes that this decision was made by a ‘corrupt chief prosecutor trying to save himself from accusations of sexual harassment and biased judges motivated by anti-Semitic hatred of Israel’.
Recently, the ICC announced an external investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against its chief prosecutor after he was accused by a female lawyer in her 30s of unwanted sexual touching and ‘abuse’ over a prolonged period, as well as coercive behaviour and abuse of authority.
The statement also accuses the ICC prosecutor of lying, as Khan would have assured that he would not take any action until he had visited Israel and heard her side of the story.
‘Instead, he cancelled his arrival in Israel last May, several days after suspicions of sexual harassment were raised against him, and announced his intention to issue arrest warrants for the Prime Minister and the former Defence Minister,’ the statement added, stressing that ’no anti-Israeli decision will prevent the State of Israel from defending its citizens’.
‘Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not bow to pressure. He will continue to pursue all the goals Israel set out to achieve in its just war against Hamas and the Iranian axis of terror,’ it concludes.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog has also condemned the ICC decision, accusing the international court of ‘choosing the side of terror and evil over that of democracy and freedom’ and of turning the justice system ‘into a human shield for Hamas's crimes against humanity’.
This is a dark day for justice. A dark day for humanity.
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) November 21, 2024
Taken in bad faith, the outrageous decision at the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughing stock. It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of all those who fight for justice - from the Allied victory over…
Herzog believes that the ICC decision ‘ignores the plight of the 101 Israeli hostages held in brutal captivity by Hamas in Gaza’, as well as ‘Hamas's cynical use of its own people as a human shield’.
‘It ignores the basic fact that Israel was barbarically attacked and has a duty and a right to defend its people. It ignores the fact that Israel is a vibrant democracy, acting in accordance with international humanitarian law and doing its utmost to meet the humanitarian needs of the civilian population,’ he adds.
In conclusion, the Israeli president calls for ‘real moral clarity in the face of an Iranian evil empire that seeks to destabilise the region and the world, and to destroy the very institutions of the free world’.
A dark moment for the International Criminal ״Court״ (ICC) in The Hague, in which it lost all legitimacy for its existence and activity. It acted as a political tool in the service of the most extreme terrorists working to undermine peace, security, and stability in the Middle…
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) November 21, 2024
The newly appointed foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, has also spoken out, calling the ICC ‘a political tool in the service of the most extremist elements working to undermine peace, security and stability in the Middle East’.
The Israeli chief of diplomacy calls these orders ‘personal attacks’ on Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as an attack on Israel, ‘the most threatened and attacked nation in the world and also the only country in the region openly targeted by other nations seeking its destruction’.
The ICC has no credibility and these allegations have been refuted by the U.S. government.
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) November 21, 2024
Israel has lawfully defended its people & borders from genocidal terrorists. You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC & UN come January. https://t.co/jIalwzooeS
In addition to condemnations from Israel, future US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has stressed that the ICC ‘has no credibility’. ‘The ICC has no credibility and the US government has refuted these allegations. Israel has legally defended its people and its borders from genocidal terrorists. Hopefully January will bring a strong response to the anti-Semitic bias of the ICC and the UN,’ Waltz wrote on social media.
