Netanyahu rejects ICC arrest warrant 'with disgust'
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he rejects with disgust the ICC arrest warrant directed at him over war crimes in Gaza.
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A protester holds a poster of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a rally outside the US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 17, 2024 (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his "disgust" on Monday after the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan applied for arrest warrants against him and Security Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The ICC is also going after three senior Hamas leaders on allegations of war crimes. Meanwhile, Netanyahu denounced the warrant and defended the crimes being committed by the Israeli occupation forces.
"I reject with disgust The Hague prosecutor's comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas," Netanyahu said.
The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include "willful killing," "extermination and/or murder," and "starvation," and though all that is true due to what is being seen on the ground in Gaza, Netanyahu linked the ICC's actions to ongoing protests against the Israeli crimes in Gaza on US university campuses, describing them as a manifestation of "new anti-Semitism."
"With what audacity do you dare compare the monsters of Hamas to the soldiers of the [IOF}, the most moral army in the world?" he said.
Other condemnations followed suit from "Israel", with the likes of Foreign Minister Israel Jatz saying the warrant application was a "historical disgrace" and a "scandalous decision".
Katz announced that the Israeli occupation would set up a special committee to contest the ICC's move and engage in diplomatic efforts to counter it.
Israeli occupation President Isaac Herzog claimed the application signaled a potential collapse of the international judicial system.
Despite the ICC's actions, Netanyahu vowed to continue the Israeli occupation's bloody war on Gaza. "I pledge that no pressure and no decision in any international forum will prevent us from striking those who seek to destroy us," he declared. "We will overthrow the evil rule of Hamas and achieve complete victory."
According to Axios, the recent filing of applications for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to further isolate "Israel" globally and put further pressure on the Biden administration to coerce Netanyahu to end the slaughter in Gaza. It might also prompt Congress to pass legislation against the International Criminal Court.
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, announced today that his office is filing applications for arrest warrants before Pre-Trial Chamber I of the ICC against Netanyahu and Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the "territory of the State of Palestine", in the Gaza Strip, from at least 8 October 2023.
This is the first action of its kind taken against any major US partner in addition to any self-proclaimed "democracy."
In his statement, Khan listed those crimes under articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute, some of which are "starvation of civilians as a method of warfare," wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, willful killing or murder as a war crime, "intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population" and "persecution as a crime against humanity."
The Chief Prosecutor of the ICC stressed that the evidence his office gathered included interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, authenticated video, photo and audio material, satellite imagery, and statements from "the alleged perpetrator group," which show that "Israel has intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival."
A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Reuters that this decision "equates the victim with the executioner," adding that it also encourages "Israel" to continue its "war of extermination" in Gaza.
