It would be an “unprecedented antisemitic hate crime” for the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against top Israeli political and military leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.
“Branding Israel’s leaders and soldiers as war criminals will pour jet fuel on the fires of antisemitism,” Netanyahu said in an English language video: “those fires that are already raging on the campuses of America and across capitals around the world.”
In Hebrew, he stated, “The purpose of this step, if it is carried out, is to threaten [Israeli] leaders and soldiers, essentially to paralyze Israel’s ability to defend itself. The Israeli government and Israeli citizens reject this outright.”
Israel is braced for the ICC to issue such warrants for war crimes, including in Gaza, against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi.
Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz have issued statements on the matter in recent days, even though the court has not taken any formal action.
Such a step would come as Israel is in the middle of battling to destroy Hamas in Gaza, in a war that many in the international community oppose, with some charging that it is akin to genocide.
At issue is the high fatality count of over 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza due to the war. Israel has said that at least 13,000 of those deaths were combatants.
Israel has insisted that it must destroy Hamas in the aftermath of the terror group’s invasion of its southern border on October 7, in which over 1,200 people were killed and 253 seized as hostages.
Netanyahu called on world leaders not to take this step
Netanyahu called on world leaders to halt this “scandalous” step of the court, which he said constitutes “moral and historical bankruptcy” and is “a distortion of justice and history.”
These warrants, if issued, would mark “the first time that a democratic country, which is fighting for its life according to all the rules of international law, is accused of war crimes,” he said.
“If this thing does happen, it will be an indelible stain on all of humanity. It would be an unprecedented antisemitic hate crime, a crime that would add fuel to the antisemitic incitement that is already raging in the world,” Netanyahu said.
Katz has already instructed Israeli embassies around the world to brace for an antisemitic backlash should the ICC issue such warrants.
President Isaac Herzog wrote on X, “I unequivocally object to any attempt to abuse international legal institutions – including the ICC – to deny the State of Israel its basic rights. We have an independent and robust judicial system that knows how to investigate as needed.
“Such actions will only serve to tie the hands of all free and democratic nations in the fight against terror, and must be strongly opposed,” he stated.
There are those in Jerusalem who believe that US President Joe Biden and his administration have the power to thwart such actions.
US Senator John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) called on Biden to “intervene as part of the administration’s ongoing commitment to Israel.”
US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters, “we don’t believe the ICC has any jurisdiction here. We don’t support” its investigation into the actions of Israeli leaders.”
The Biden administration is opposed to the intimidation of its judges: “That’s, that’s beyond the pale,” Kirby stated.
State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said that, “We work closely with the ICC in a number of key areas and we think it does important work.”