Responses by Israeli leaders to ICC decision

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The International Criminal Court intends to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity for Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war, its Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced Monday, on the 227th day of the Gaza war.

Senior Israeli officials responded to ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s announcement on Monday that he intends to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity for Israel’s conduct in the Gaza war, alongside warrants for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniye, Yahya Sinwar, and Mohamed Def.

“Outrageous” 

President Isaac Herzog said that the decision was “beyond outrageous, and shows the extent to which the international judicial system is in danger of collapsing.”

“Taken in bad faith, this one-sided move represents a unilateral political step that emboldens terrorists around the world, and violates all the basic rules of the court according to the principle of complementarity and other legal norms,” Herzog said.

From left to right: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz, and opposition leader Yair Lapid (credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90, Chaim Goldberg/Flash90, Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90, Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)

Justice Minister Yariv Levin called the decision “one of the greatest moral disgraces in history,” and argued that it was “intended to prevent Israel from the right to defend itself”. The “lowly comparison between Israel’s leaders and the mass murderers leading Hamas, are a clear expression of modern antisemitism and hatred of Jews wherever they may be,” Levin said.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said at the beginning of the Knesset plenum on Monday that “the ICC proved that it never will be legitimate.”

“An institution that is uncapable of differentiating between the aggressor and the defender, between a democracy that respects human rights to a terror organization dedicated to its destruction in the name of the ideals of radical Islam and murderous zealots – is a danger to humanity,” Ohana said.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called the decision a “theater of the absurd,” and pledged that Israel would continue to fight its enemies.

“These arrest warrants will be the last nail in the dismantling of this political and antisemitic court,” Smotrich said.

Minister-without-portfolio MK Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, wrote on X, “The state of Israel is fighting in the most moral way in history, while respecting international law.” Accepting Khan’s position would be a “historic crime that will not be erased.”

Opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized the Hague prosecutor’s decision, but also lay the blame for Israel’s deteriorating international status at the government’s feet.

The decision was a “diplomatic disaster [and] a moral disaster,” Lapid said. He added that the comparison between Israeli leaders and the leaders of Hamas was “unacceptable.”

“For months I have been warning that there is no diplomatic activity in the world, and that that part of the result is that it has become a diplomatic failure of the most severe degree.”

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