The US president insists Israel and Hamas cannot be compared after the ICC sought arrest warrants for alleged Israeli war crimes.
US President Joe Biden has defended Israel against war crimes charges in the world’s highest courts.
Biden’s remarks come after Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes committed during the Gaza war.
“Let me be clear, we reject the ICC’s request for an arrest warrant against Israeli leaders,” Biden said at an American Jewish Heritage Month event at the White House on Monday, the same day Khan announced it was seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes.
“There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas,” Biden added. Hours earlier, he issued a strongly worded statement saying the ICC’s arrest warrants were “scandalous.”
Israel also faces a separate case for alleged genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), brought by South Africa.
Biden said Israel was not committing genocide in Gaza.
“Contrary to the allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), what is happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that,” Biden said in his speech.
In January, the ICJ ruled that there was a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza, ordering Israel to take a series of interim measures, including to prevent any acts of genocide.
While Biden’s defense of Israel was met with warm applause at the White House event, his election campaign was marred by pro-Palestinian protests across the United States, with some backing the war calling the president “Genocide Joe.”
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The ICC prosecutor outlined specific charges against Netanyahu and Gallant, including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “extermination,” although he said his full investigation was ongoing.
Khan also requested arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (also known as Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh – for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination and murder, prisoner kidnapping, torture, rape and other acts of sexual violence.
The accusations were supported by evidence prepared by a panel of experts, including international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.
In a statement released on the report prepared by the experts, Clooney wrote: “I do not accept that any conflict is beyond the reach of the law, nor that any perpetrator is above the law. »
Some US Republican lawmakers were even more forceful in their criticism of the ICC’s prosecution of Israel on Monday.
“My colleagues and I look forward to ensuring that neither Khan, his associates, nor their families ever set foot in the United States again,” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton wrote on X.
The ICC is the first permanent international war crimes court and its 124 member states are required to immediately arrest any wanted person if they are on the territory of a member state.
The United States is not a member of the ICC and its “greatest leverage” could be to put pressure on its allies – mainly European countries that are signatories to the ICC – not to follow through on arrest warrants, said Heidi Zhou-Castro of Tel Aviv Tribune, reporting from Washington. , D.C.
Israel is not a member of the ICC. Neither do China and Russia.
International reactions to the ICC prosecutor’s plan to issue arrest warrants have been mixed.
In comments to the United Nations Security Council, Swiss UN envoy Pascale Baeriswyl said her country “fully supports the Court and emphasizes the importance of respecting its independence.”
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2023 for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, but Monday’s ruling marks the first time the court has sought to intervene in the Middle East conflict.