The United States has condemned the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its issuance of arrest warrants on Nov. 21 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant regarding their actions in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“The United States fundamentally rejects the Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials,” a State Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
The department said the decision to issue the warrants was rushed and that the ICC “does not have jurisdiction over this matter.”
“Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence—none—between Israel and Hamas,” said the spokesperson.
The United States is discussing next steps with Israel and other partners, said the spokesperson.
The Pentagon echoed the State Department.
In a statement, ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan explained that Netanyahu and Gallant committed war crimes in Gaza by starving its people.
They also, he said, have committed “crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, as a direct perpetrator, acting jointly with others.”
Additionally, said Khan, “they are each responsible for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilians as a superior.”
Netanyahu also criticized the arrest warrant, calling it “anti-Semitic.”
“Today is a dark day in the history of nations. The International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was established to protect humanity, has today become humanity’s enemy,” he said in a video posted on social media platform X.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who will become Senate majority leader in January, said on the Senate floor in response to the warrants that the Senate will introduce a bill to impose sanctions on the ICC if the current majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), declines to do so beforehand.
Jewish groups also condemned the arrest warrants.
The American Jewish Congress called the warrants “egregious” and “a result of a clear anti-Israel bias and amount to politically motivated interference in Israel’s efforts to fight back against terror and disregard both Israel’s judicial sovereignty and its right to protect its citizens.”
Moreover, it added that the “decision sends a dangerous and unacceptable message: that defending innocent civilians from terrorism or responding to entities committed to destroying your state is somehow a criminal act.”
“The ICC is a kangaroo court that should be forcefully condemned by all of our leaders for today’s outrageous arrest warrants targeting Israel,” posted the Republican Jewish Coalition on X.
Other organizations applauded the ICC move.
“Every member state of the International Criminal Court—and even its erstwhile champions like the U.S.—have a duty to swiftly arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant at the first opportunity they get,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, in a statement posted on X.
“The ICC arrest warrants against these Israeli officials are a milestone for justice and accountability, and just about the only thing that stands a chance of saving international law at a moment of U.S.-backed genocidal Israeli impunity,” she continued.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the ICC to go beyond arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
“Going forward, any other political leaders who continue to enable and fund the Israeli government’s crimes against humanity—including Biden administration officials—should also be held accountable,” said the group’s executive director, Nihad Awad.
The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif, who is believed to be dead but that has not been confirmed.
The ICC, said Khan, “found reasonable grounds to believe that he is responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder, extermination, torture, and rape and other forms of sexual violence; as well as the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture, taking hostages, outrages upon personal dignity, and rape and other forms of sexual violence.”
From The Epoch Times