Israei Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has rejected the issuance the International Criminal Court’s warrant, describing he court as “antisemitic”
His office said that no “anti-Israel” decision will prevent the State of Israel from defending its citizens.
“The PM will not succumb to pressure, will not be deterred, and will not retreat until all the war objectives set by Israel at the start of the campaign are achieved.
“Israel vehemently rejects the absurd and false actions and accusations against it by the International Criminal Court, a biased and discriminatory political body.”
Israeli Prime Minister
Several Israeli officials also responded to the ICC’s arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.
In a post on X, opposition leader Yair Lapid condemned the court’s decision, characterising Israel’s war on Gaza as a fight for its life “against terrorist oganisations.”
Former Defence Minister, Avigdor Lieberman also spoke out against the ruling, writing on X that it shows the international community’s “double standards and hypocrisy.”
“The state of Israel will not apologise for protecting its citizens and is committed to continuing to fight terrorism without compromise.”
Avigdor Lieberman
Calling the ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes “a legal absurdity,” Israeli Transportation Minister, Miri Regev posted on X, “This is modern antisemitism in the guise of justice.”
Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf said, “Simply anti-Semitism, always anti-Semitism,” citing a verse from the Torah that states the Jews are “a people that dwells alone, not reckoned among the nations.”
Additionally, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, said, “The International Criminal Court in The Hague shows once again that it is anti-Semitic through and through. … I support the Prime Minister in the just war.”
“The answer to the arrest warrants: applying sovereignty over all the territories of Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank], settlement in all parts of the country and severing ties with the terrorist authority, including sanctions.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir
Israeli Former Justice Minister Deems It A Sad Day
Moreover, Former Israeli Justice Minister, Yossi Beilin said that it’s a very sad day that “my Prime Minister is indicted at the ICC.” He added, “I didn’t think it would have gotten to this point in history especially because the gates of hell were opened by Hamas on October 7 and the massacre of Israelis.”
Referring to the ICC’s arrest warrant against Hamas’s Mohammed Deif, who is believed to have been killed in a July strike on Gaza by the Israeli army, he stated, “To believe that we will find ourselves indicted by the ICC while on the other side, they indicted a dead person, I don’t understand why you indict a dead person.”
Two other people for whom ICC’s top prosecutor Kharim Khan had requested an arrest warrant were Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh. However, they were both killed by Israel.
“I would suggest Gallant, the former defence minister, to consider this option [to present himself at the Hague-based court] – it is not a simple one and maybe the court is unbalanced but this is an opportunity to present the case of Israel from October 7.
“The fact that people were killed, and among them not only Hamas warriors but also civilians, breaks my heart but to portray Israel as the villain of this story while the Palestinians were the victims it’s not the exact story.”
Yossi Beilin
Israel has killed nearly 45,000 people in the Gaza Strip since start of the war, it has reduced to rubble large swathes of the enclave and pushed pockets of its 2.2-million population to the cusp of famine.
Last week, a UN special committee found that Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide.
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