Israelis unite after arrest warrants requested from the ICC

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders. Despite being criticized, the Israeli Prime Minister is today supported by the population.

This is the first time that a leader of a democracy and ally of the Americans has been the subject of a request for an international arrest warrant. The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested on Monday May 20 arrest warrants against the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said he had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes including “deliberately starving civilians,” intentional homicide” and “extermination and/or murder”. The accusations against Hamas leaders also targeted by this request for arrest warrants, notably its leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinouar, include “extermination”, “rape and other forms of sexual violence” and “the hostage-taking as a war crime.

However, we will have to wait several weeks for the decision of the judges of the preliminary chamber of the ICC to know whether these mandates will be applied. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, could then be placed under house arrest. If this is the case, the more than 120 countries which have ratified the Treaty of Rome will then have the obligation to hand it over to international justice. A shock in Israel where the population stands behind its Prime Minister, who is nevertheless very unpopular.

The Israeli Prime Minister “rejected with disgust the Hague prosecutor’s comparison between Israel“, country “democratic“, And “Hamas mass murderers“. His Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, castigated a “scandalous decision” And “a historic dishonor” for the court in The Hague. And, everywhere in Israel, we see the same indignation and the same argument in the streets: “You cannot put the name of Bibi in the same basket as that of Sinouar and the other leaders of Hamas!”denounces a passerby.

“Bibi” is therefore today defended by his main opponent Benny Gantz, but also by the Hostage Families Forum which nevertheless accuses him of not doing enough to free their loved ones. Yaron is one of them : “We are not fighting for the same cause. Sinouar and the members of Hamas hate the Jews. They decided to kill us in a barbaric way and we have no interlocutor on their side.”

“We seek to free the hostages and destroy the tunnels which allow arms trafficking between Egypt and Gaza. Israel defends life. They defend death.”

Yaron, a Netanyahu voter

at franceinfo

If Israel is now in the ICC’s sights, it is not for alleged war crimes, but “because the country is populated mainly by Jews”, judge for his part Ilan. This former centrist party voter Yesh Atid, who moved to Likud, judges that this is anti-Semitism: “We are defending ourselves, we did not start this war. It was not Bibi Netanyahu who gave the order to kill. We do not want to kill the Palestinians. We are much too kind”he judges. Despite international pressure, Israel cannot stop, believes Ilan. “Because of October 7”according to him, the war must continue“until Hamas disappears”.

For its part, the Palestinian Islamist movement also denounced the arrest warrants requested by the ICC against its leaders, denouncing “the prosecutor’s attempts (…) to assimilate the victim to the executioner“.