Netanyahu denounces ICC arrest warrants as 'antisemitic'

Reuters

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday (November 21) a decision by the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant to arrest him for alleged war crimes was an "antisemitic".

In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a "widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza".

"The truth is simple. No war is more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza after Hamas attacked us unprovoked, launching the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust."

Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.

""The decision to issue an arrest warrant against me, the democratically elected prime minister of the State of Israel, and our former defense minister was made by a rogue prosecutor who is trying to extricate himself from sexual harassment charges, and by biased judges who are motivated by antisemitic sentiments against the one and only Jewish state"

"The antisemitic decision of the international court in The Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way," Netanyahu said in a video statement."

The court does not have its own police force to carry out arrests and relies on its 124 member states for that, with only limited diplomatic means to force them if they do not want to.

"Israel does not, Israel will not recognise the validity of this decision. We will continue to do everything we must do to defend our citizens and to defend our state against Iran’s axis of terror. Iran and its terrorist proxies, which include Hamas, Hezbollah the Houthis and others. Our enemies are your enemies, and our victory will be your victory, the victory of civilization over barbarism and tyranny",  Netayahu said.

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