Benjamin Netanyahu reacted furiously to the news that he might face an arrest warrant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He described it as “a moral outrage of historic proportions”. Israel has been “waging a just war against Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organisation that perpetrated the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
In a harsh personal assault, Mr Netanyahu said that Karim Khan, the head prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), was one of the “great antisemites in modern times.”
Mr Khan, he claimed, was like Nazi judges who denied Jews basic rights and facilitated the Holocaust. His decision to seek arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister and defense minister was like “callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging around the world.”
Mr Netanyahu spoke English in the footage posted by his office. He does this when he wants his message to reach the international audience that is most important to him, in the United States.
The prime minister’s fury, which was shared by Israel’s political leadership, was sparked by pages of carefully chosen legal language in a statement made by Mr Khan, the ICC chief prosecutor and British King’s Counsel.
Word for word, line by line, they build up to a damning list of claims against Hamas’ three most important leaders, as well as Israel’s prime minister and defense minister.
Mr Khan’s declaration, in which he explains why he is obtaining arrest warrants, is based on a desire to implement international law and armed conflict laws to all participants, regardless of who they are.
“No foot soldier, no commander, no civilian leader – no one – can act with impunity.” The law, he claims, cannot be applied selectively. “We will be creating conditions for its collapse” if that happens.
The decision to hold all sides’ actions to the standard of international law is provoking widespread outrage, not only in Israel.
US President Joe Biden called it “outrageous” to ask for arrest warrants. There is “no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas” .
Hamas urged that the accusations against its leaders be dropped, stating that the ICC prosecutor was “equating the victim with the executioner”. It said that the proposal to issue arrest warrants for Israeli authorities came seven months too late, after “the Israeli occupation committed thousands of crimes”.
Mr Khan does not draw obvious parallels between the two sides, save to state that they have both perpetrated a number of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He also underlines that this new war is part of “an international armed conflict between Israel and Palestine, as well as a non-international armed conflict between Israel and Hamas”.
The court sees Palestine as a state since it has observer status at the United Nations, allowing it to sign the Rome Statute, which established the ICC.
Mr Netanyahu has stated that Palestinians will never get independence under his watch.
Instead of seeing shameful and false parallels between “these brutal terrorists and Israel’s democratically elected government”, in the words of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, human rights groups praised the way the ICC prosecutor applied the law to both sides. Is. ,
B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights organization, said the arrest orders represented Israel’s “rapid descent into a moral abyss”.
He said, “The international community is sending a signal to Israel that it is no longer able to continue its policy of violence, killing and destruction without accountability.”
Human rights activists have complained for years that powerful Western countries, led by the United States, turn a blind eye to Israel’s violations of international law, even while condemning and punishing other countries outside their camp. We do.
He believes that the steps taken by Khan and his team are long overdue.
Mr Khan says Hamas’s three main leaders committed war crimes, including genocide, murder, hostage-taking, rape and torture.
The individuals named include Yahya al-Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Muhammad Deif, the leader of its military wing al-Qassam Brigades, and Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau.
As part of his investigation, Karim Khan and his team interviewed victims and survivors of the 7 October attacks.
He said Hamas attacked basic human values: “The love within the family, the deep bond between parent and child, has been distorted to inflict immeasurable pain through calculated cruelty and extreme brutality Is.”
Khan said that Israel has the right to defend itself. But “unconscionable crimes” “do not relieve Israel of its obligation to comply with international humanitarian law.”
He said the failure to do so justifies issuing arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant on charges of crimes including starvation, murder, extermination and deliberate attacks on civilians as weapons of war.
What is the International Criminal Court (ICC)?
Since the beginning of Israel’s response to Hamas attacks on October 7, President Biden has issued a series of rebuke to Israel, expressing concern that it is killing too many Palestinian civilians and too many in Gaza. Destroying civilian infrastructure.
But in trying to strike a delicate balance with a close ally he has always supported, Biden and his administration have not made it clear publicly what they mean.
Mr. Khan makes his explanation very clear. He says Israel chose criminal methods to achieve its war goals in Gaza – “namely, deliberately inflicting death, starvation, severe suffering and serious injury on civilians”.
A panel of judges at the International Criminal Court will now consider whether to issue an arrest warrant. States that are signatories to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court will be obliged to detain the men if they have the opportunity.
Russia, China and the United States are not among the 124 countries that have signed the agreement. Israel also did not sign.
But the ICC ruled that it had the legal authority to prosecute criminal acts in the war because the Palestinians had signed it.
If an arrest warrant is issued, it would mean Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, would not be able to meet with close Western allies without risking arrest.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the ICC’s actions were “not helpful in temporarily stopping the fighting, removing the hostages, or bringing humanitarian aid.” But if an arrest warrant is issued, Britain would have to make the arrests unless it can successfully argue that Netanyahu enjoys diplomatic immunity.
The most important exception for Netanyahu and Gallant is the United States. The White House believes the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction in the conflict, a position that could exacerbate divisions within Joe Biden’s Democratic Party over the war.
Progressives have already welcomed the ICC’s action. Israel’s loyal allies among Democrats could support a Republican move to pass a law to punish ICC officials or bar them from entering the United States.
As rumors of impending impeachment spread across Europe, the US and the Middle East weeks ago, a group of Republican senators issued the kind of threat to Khan and his staff that might have sounded like something from a movie.
“Target Israel and we will target you… You have been warned.”
Yoav Gallant will also not be able to travel freely. The words he used when he announced that Israel would lift the blockade of Gaza have been repeatedly cited by critics of Israel’s behavior.
On October 7, two days after the Hamas attacks, Mr Gallant said: “I have ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed… We are humans fighting animals. And so are we.” , Act accordingly.”
“Israel has deliberately and systematically deprived the civilian population throughout Gaza of the bare essentials for human survival,” Mr Khan wrote in his statement.
He says famine exists in some parts of Gaza and is imminent in other parts.
Israel denies the existence of the famine, and claims that the food shortage was not due to the blockade it imposed, but due to Hamas evasion and UN incompetence.
If an arrest warrant is issued for Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political wing, he will have to think more seriously about his regular trips to meet senior Arab leaders. He is likely to spend more time at his base in Qatar, which, like Israel, has not signed the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court.
Other accused Hamas leaders Yahya al-Sinwar and Muhammad Deif are believed to be hiding inside Gaza. The arrest warrant does not put any special pressure on them. Israel has been trying to kill him for seven months.
The arrest warrant would also list Netanyahu among the accused leaders, who also include Russian President Vladimir Putin and late Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Putin faces an arrest warrant on charges of illegal deportation and transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia.
An arrest warrant was issued against Colonel Gaddafi for killing and harassing unarmed civilians, before being killed by his own men.
This company is not attractive to Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of a country that is proud of its democracy.
