Israel strongly criticized the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s request to issue an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Galant, describing the decision as a “historic disgrace.”
Israel began a counter-campaign to drop this request and limit its legal and political effects on Israel. Among the most important decisions and procedures that Israel began implementing are the following:
War room
Tel Aviv decided to create what it described as a special war room that would coordinate the Israeli move aimed at overthrowing the efforts of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said that the Attorney General’s request is “a historical stain that will remain in the memory forever,” as he put it.
Katz confirmed that Tel Aviv has opened a special war room to confront the ICC’s move.
Diplomatic communications
He added, in a statement, that he intends “to speak with the foreign ministers of the major countries so that they oppose the Attorney General’s decision and announce that even if these orders were issued, they do not intend to apply them to the leaders of the State of Israel.”
Delegation to The Hague
As part of the procedures, Israel decided to send a delegation including a number of experts to The Hague and other international forums, to claim that the Hague Court does not have jurisdiction, and that Israel has a legal and judicial system that carries out the necessary investigations, and that what the Public Prosecutor said was false, especially since he equated Israel’s democratically elected leaders and Hamas leaders, according to him.
Collect signatures
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu opened the Likud bloc session by collecting party members’ signatures on a petition against the International Criminal Prosecutor’s decision.
Continue the war
In what appears to be an insistence on moving in the same direction that led to the intervention of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the Israeli Broadcasting Authority quoted an Israeli official as saying that the arrest warrants in The Hague will not affect the continuation of the war.
Acute attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the International Criminal Prosecutor’s decision as ridiculous and false. In a recorded speech, Netanyahu confirmed his rejection of what he said was the International Criminal Prosecutor’s comparison between democratic Israel and the top killers in Hamas, as he put it.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also criticized Khan’s request, calling it an example of the kind of “danger” facing the ICC.
He said, in a statement, “This unilateral move represents a unilateral political move that encourages terrorists around the world.”
Herzog criticized what he said was a comparison between the leaders of the Hamas movement and the democratically elected government of Israel, and said that this was “disgraceful and cannot be accepted by anyone,” as he put it.
As for the Minister in the Israeli war government, Benny Gantz, he described the move of the Criminal Court Prosecutor as a “historic crime,” and said that the step was “moral blindness,” as he put it.
The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said that he had submitted requests to the court to issue arrest warrants on charges of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, in connection with the war in Gaza and the October 7 attack.
Khan said that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Gallant bear responsibility for crimes against humanity in Gaza.
He added that the evidence concluded that Israeli officials systematically deprived Palestinians of the basics of life, and that Netanyahu and Gallant were complicit in causing suffering and starving civilians in Gaza.