Israel on Monday denounced the request of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Galant, describing the decision as a “historic disgrace.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the court to issue an arrest warrant against him and Gallant as a “scandal.”
“They will not stop us,” Netanyahu said during a meeting of the Likud Party bloc – participating in the ruling coalition – in reference to his determination to continue his war on Gaza.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog also criticized Khan’s request, calling it an example of the kind of “danger” facing the ICC.
“This unilateral move represents a unilateral political move that encourages terrorists around the world,” he said in a statement.
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 “a disgraceful matter that no one can accept,” as he put it.
Create a war room
In turn, 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 said that Tel Aviv opened a special war room to confront the ICC’s move.
He added in a statement that he intends “to speak with the foreign ministers of 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.”
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.
For its part, the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted an Israeli official that the arrest warrants in The Hague will not affect the continuation of the war.
“Historical crime”
As for the Minister in the Israeli war government, Benny Gantz, he described the move of the Criminal Court Prosecutor as a “historic crime.” He described the step as “moral blindness,” in his words.
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 genocide against humanity, in connection with the war in Gaza and the attack of last October 7.
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 starvation of civilians in Gaza.