(Jerusalem) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday “reject with disgust” the arrest warrants requested by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) both for the Israeli leader and for Palestinian Hamas officials.
“As Prime Minister of Israel, I reject with disgust the Hague prosecutor’s comparison between Israel,” a “democratic” country, and “the mass murderers of Hamas,” he said in a statement.
“How dare you compare the monsters of Hamas to the soldiers of the IDF,” the “most moral” Israeli army in the world? “, he says, judging that this is a “complete distortion of reality”.
“This is exactly what the new anti-Semitism looks like, it has moved from the campuses of the West to the Court in The Hague. What a shame ! “, still asserts the right-wing Israeli leader.
On Monday, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said he had requested arrest warrants for Mr. Netanyahu and his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity such as “the act of ‘deliberate starvation of civilians’, ‘intentional homicide’ and ‘extermination and/or murder’.
Read “ICC requests arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Hamas leaders”
He also called for arrest warrants against Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinouar, the leader of the Palestinian movement Ismaïl Haniyeh as well as against Mohammed Deif, head of the armed wing of Hamas, for crimes against crimes committed in Israel and the Gaza Strip, such as “extermination”, “rape and other forms of sexual violence”, “torture” and “hostage-taking”.
Joe Biden castigates “scandalous” request
US President Joe Biden on Monday criticized in a terse statement the arrest warrant requested by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli leaders, saying that no “equivalence” was possible between Israel and Hamas .
PHOTO JACQUELYN MARTIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
US President Joe Biden
The prosecutor’s request is “scandalous”, said the American president in a press release, while the head of diplomacy Antony Blinken declared that the magistrate’s approach was “a shame”.
The United States will, however, continue to “provide [leur soutien à la CPI] regarding the crimes committed in Ukraine,” stressed Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin.
The Court issued an arrest warrant in 2023 against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused of the war crime of illegal expulsion of Ukrainian children.
“I will be clear: whatever the prosecutor insinuates, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas, there is none,” asserted Joe Biden. “We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security. »
Antony Blinken said in a statement that the prosecutor’s request “could compromise” talks on the ceasefire in Gaza.
“Hamas is a violent terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans,” he added.
Furthermore, the ICC has “no jurisdiction” over Israel, he recalled.
“False equivalence”
Mr. Khan “creates a false moral equivalence between the leaders of Israel and the henchmen of Hamas. It’s like creating a moral equivalence after September 11 between President Bush and Osama bin Laden, or during the Second World War between FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Hitler,” Benyamin Netanyahu said Monday evening in his press release.
“He is pouring fuel on the fire of anti-Semitism without hesitation,” added the Israeli Prime Minister, according to whom “by this incendiary decision, Mr. Khan ranks himself among the great anti-Semites of modern times.”
For his part, Israeli President Isaac Herzog criticized in a statement the “unilateral approach” of prosecutor Karim Khan which “constitutes a political measure that encourages terrorists throughout the world”.
In the streets, Israelis shared this indignation.
“It’s obviously absurd,” reacted Benjamin, a 28-year-old architect, who did not want to give his last name. “There are so many crimes in the world […] It’s really scandalous that they are attacking us,” he said, interviewed by AFP in a street in Tel Aviv.
Mr. Netanyahu recommitted on Monday to continue the offensive in the Gaza Strip, promising to “overthrow” the evil power of Hamas” and “achieve total victory.”