The Prime Minister of Israelaccused the ICC of being biased and of having issued international arrest warrants “based on absolutely unfounded accusations”, in what he described as “a moral bankruptcy that undermines the natural right of democracies to defend themselves against murderous terrorism”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned, this Thursday, the arrest warrant issued against him by the by declaring that no “scandalous decision” will prevent him from defending his country and that he will not give in to pressure.
“No scandalous decision against Israel will stop us – and especially not me – to continue to defend our country in any way,” Netanyahu said in a video message to the nation, adding, of widespread international criticism of his conduct of : “We will not give in to pressure.”
In addition to Netanyahu, indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, the ICC also issued arrest warrants against the head of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Mohammed Deif (presumably killed in an Israeli attack in the summer), and against the former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who called the decision a “dangerous precedent against Israel’s right to self-defense and moral warfare.”
Netanyahu accused the ICC of being biased and of having “based on absolutely unfounded accusations”, in what he described as “a moral bankruptcy that undermines the natural right of democracies to defend themselves against murderous terrorism”.
The Israeli prime minister went on to say that “Israel does not and will not recognize this distorted decision”, further criticizing the judges at the Hague-based court for not doing anything against “the real crimes against humanity that are being committed” elsewhere in the world. , referring to the cases of Iran, Syria and Yemen.
“And what did the Hague court do in response to the atrocities committed by Hamas on?”, he asked about the massacres carried out last year by the Palestinian group in Israeli territory, where they left around 1,200 dead and took close to 250 hostages, giving rise to the war in the Gaza Strip.
“Ah, sorry, I issued an arrest warrant for the body of Mohammed Deif,” continued Netanyahu, alluding to the Hamas military leader who Israel said it had eliminated last summer, but without confirmation of the armed movement.
The Israeli leader’s office had already released a statement today in which Netanyahu is quoted as rejecting with “disgust the absurd and false actions”.
In the statement, the leader of the Israeli executive classified the decision of the international body as “anti-Semitic”, maintaining that “there is nothing more fair than the war that Israel is waging in Gaza” against Hamas.
The Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip since October last year has already caused more than 44,000 deaths, most of them civilians, according to local authorities controlled by Hamas, and has left the Palestinian enclave in a situation of humanitarian catastrophe, according to the United Nations and several international organizations.
