Netanyahu Slams The ICC’s ‘Absurd Charges’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a damning message to the International Criminal Court on Monday over the arrest warrants it issued for top Israeli officials over the Jewish country’s war against Hamas.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, claiming that they are guilty of war crimes in Gaza.

In a video statement on Monday, Netanyahu said, “The outrageous decision by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants against the democratically elected leaders of Israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions. It will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court.”

“Israel is waging a just war against Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that perpetrated the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Hamas massacred 1200 Jews, raped Jewish women, burned Jewish babies, took hundreds hostage,” he continued.

“Now, in the face of these horrors, Mr. Khan creates a twisted and false moral equivalence between the leaders of Israel and the henchmen of Hamas. This is like creating a moral equivalence after September 11th between President Bush and Osama Bin Laden, or during World War II between FDR and Hitler,” he added before going on to call the charges “a disgrace” and a “travesty of justice.”

Saying that the charges are nothing more than a ploy to protect Hamas, Netanyahu stated, “And I assure you of one thing: This attempt will utterly fail. Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were totally defenseless against our enemies. Those days are over. Now the Jewish people have a state and we have an army to defend our state.”

He promised that Israel will keep carrying out its operation against Hamas “in full compliance with international law” by taking measures to prevent civilian casualties among others.

PM Netanyahu reacts to ICC Prosecutor’s arrest announcement: “It’s outrageous and will not stop me from doing what needs to be done to destroy Hamas.”

— Marc Zell (@GOPIsrael) May 20, 2024

Netanyahu’s remarks come after the chief prosecutor of the ICC Karim Khan announced on Monday that he applied for arrest warrants against top Israeli officials along with some Hamas leaders over allegations of war crimes.

Khan’s actions against Israeli officials over the war hold dire implications, as Netanyahu pointed out. According to the prime minister, he not only “ sets a dangerous precedent that undermines every democracy’s right to defend itself against terror organizations and aggressors,” but is also “pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world.”

“Through this incendiary decision, Mr. Khan takes his place among the great antisemites in modern times. He now stands alongside those infamous German judges who donned their robes and upheld laws that denied the Jewish people their most basic rights and enabled the Nazis to perpetrate the worst crime in history,” said Netanyahu.