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DPA International
Israel and Palestinian extremist organization Hamas have blasted the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after he moved to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as several Hamas leaders. ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said on Monday that he is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and three Hamas leaders over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel and Gaza. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz labelled the long-expected move a “scandalous decision,” which he said represents “an u…
The following e-mailed comments were received by San Diego Jewish World which I as editor pass along in the interest of presenting a range of Jewish opinion:
REACTIONS:
American Jewish Committee:
American Jewish Committee (AJC) is appalled by the decision of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Karim Khan, to request arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
This effort is a moral outrage based on blatant falsehoods that will harm the Court’s credibility, completely undermine its core mandate, and embolden enemies of democracies around the world.
Khan’s claims that Israeli officials are “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, and deliberately targeting civilians in conflict” are slanderous, factually unsupported, and contribute to a broader effort to demonize the State of Israel and the Israeli people.
Like every nation, Israel has the inherent right of self-defense enshrined in Article 51 of the UN Charter. In response to Hamas’ brutal October 7 attack, during which more than 1,200 people were murdered, thousands injured, and more than 240 kidnapped, Israel’s military actions against Hamas have been carried out utilizing a military code of conduct that strives to protect civilian life. The Prosecutor’s charges assume the opposite – that Israel’s intention has been to deliberately harm innocents.
That Khan is pursuing simultaneous warrants against Hamas leaders, thereby creating a false equivalence between leaders of a democratic country and leaders of a genocidal terror organization, is abhorrent, deeply offensive, and further points to the hypocrisy of this pursuit.
AJC’s position has been consistent and is shared by governments, including the United States: the ICC has no jurisdiction to pursue these warrants. Palestine is not a state, and no international body with the authority to do so has determined that it is one. Nor has any other mechanism in the Rome Statute been triggered that would allow the Court to consider this case. The consequences of the Court’s 2021 decision to defer conclusively answering this foundational question are now evident.
Moreover, Israel is a democracy with a robust and independent judiciary capable of actively considering any allegations that might have led to the Prosecutor’s pursuit of arrest warrants. AJC has full confidence in Israel’s independent judiciary to address any alleged illegal acts committed by members of its military force, as it has always done. Requesting arrest warrants targeting Israelis ignores the principle of complementarity underpinning the Rome Statute, which dictates that the ICC should act only when the states with the primary responsibility to do so are unable or unwilling to exercise it.
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Hadassah:
In response to the International Criminal Court’s announcement today, Hadassah National President Carol Ann Schwartz released the following statement:
“It is significant that the International Criminal Court’s charges against Hamas terrorist leaders included rape and sexual assault in addition to murder and hostage-taking. Hadassah has been leading international efforts to raise awareness and demand justice for Hamas’ weaponization of sexual violence through its End The Silence campaign. These are horrendous crimes and Hamas must be held accountable. There simply is no equivalence between Israel’s democratically elected leaders defending their country and Hamas terrorists holding civilians hostage and leveraging rape as a weapon of war. Israel has a right to defend itself and its people from terrorism and to fight to free the hostages that Hamas continues to hold.”
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U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida):
“There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. Equating a democratic state with a terror group that rapes, murders, delights in acts of genocide and eagerly aims to maximize civilian deaths demonstrates the ICC’s gaping moral failure. No other nation is held to this standard.”
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World Jewish Congress:
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder issued the following statement:
“The World Jewish Congress rejects the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s illegitimate and misguided wish to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. Make no mistake, there is no moral equivalence between the Hamas terror group’s barbaric Oct. 7 attacks and the response by the democratic Jewish state.
“Since that day, Israel has acted to both remove direct threats to its security and to provide long-term protection for its people.
“The chief prosecutor’s baseless call, which could be characterized as antisemitic and which seeks to stand in the way of Israel’s right to self-defense, runs contrary to the fundamental guiding forces of international law and order.
“This move undermines the mission of the ICC and does little to serve justice for the people of Gaza and the hostages being held by Hamas.”
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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Members:
Today U.S. Senators Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), John Fetterman (D-Penn.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) issued the following statement in response to the International Criminal Court (ICC) announcing the decision to apply for arrest warrants for democratically-elected Israeli officials.
“These actions by the ICC jeopardize efforts to bring about sustainable peace in the Middle East. It puts at risk sensitive negotiations to bring home hostages, including Americans, and surge humanitarian assistance.
“The application for arrest warrants also draws a false equivalence between Israel with its longstanding commitment to the rule of law, and Hamas’ theocratic, autocratic, and unaccountable rule over Gaza. To state the obvious: Israel is a functioning democracy, while Hamas is a terrorist organization.
“Representatives of the ICC were supposed to be in Israel today to set up meetings between Israeli officials and ICC Prosecutor Khan’s team next week to discuss allegations and concerns. This was a process we encouraged, as it is consistent with the principle of complementarity.
“The ICC’s precipitous action in applying for arrest warrants in this instance runs contrary to the promotion of rule of law globally; Israel has a long history as a functioning democracy, with an independent judiciary and military justice system. We have great confidence in the Israeli judicial system’s ability to administer justice. The principle of complementarity should be honored, allowing a nation’s legal system to act first.
“Acting today without engaging the Israeli government on these specific concerns calls into question the unbiased approach ICC investigations are supposed to have.
“We will continue to work in a bipartisan manner to strenuously object to the ICC’s actions against our ally, Israel, and take appropriate steps to help Israel and protect American personnel from future ICC action.”