Reactions ranged from welcoming the International Criminal Court’s decision to slamming it as “appalling” and “non comprehensible.”
While Israeli politicians of all stripes have sharply rebuked the International Criminal Court’s request for arrest warrants for its top officials, European leaders’ reactions are split.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan filed applications Monday for arrests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, as well as the commander of Hamas’s military wing and Israel’s defense minister, citing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel and the State of Palestine.
“Crimes committed in Gaza must be prosecuted at the highest level, regardless of the perpetrators,” Belgium’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Hadja Lahbib, wrote in a statement on X, emphasizing Belgium’s support for the work of the ICC.
Slovenia’s foreign ministry issued a statement in a similar vein, stating that war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on Israeli and Palestinian territory “must be prosecuted independently and impartially regardless of the perpetrators.”
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Other EU leaders saw the decision less favorably.
“The ICC Chief Prosecutor’s proposal to issue an arrest warrant for the representatives of a democratically elected government together with the leaders of an Islamist terrorist organisation is appalling and completely unacceptable,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala wrote.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer expressed similar reservations.
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In London, the United Kingdom’s government distanced itself from the ICC’s move.
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Just a reminder: Israel is not a democracy. It’s an apartheid state in which millions of its subjects are denied the right to vote because of their ethnicity.
“Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas,” said Biden in a statement. “We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
The ICC’s statement does not accuse Israeli and Hamas leaders of identical crimes, though there is some overlap.
Biden once again playing the role of useful idiot to appease his owner donors at AIPAC and similar lobbying arms of the fascist apartheid regime.
Surprising that Politico, who are usually supporting him to the point of abject servility, would illustrate his strawman so clearly, though…
It’s cuz other leaders want to do the same and don’t want the precedent set
The Czech government has always had Israel bootlickers. It’s not hard to imagine why they’re the most vocal apologetics for the massacre.
Anyway, thankfully common Czechs showed a bit of reason for a change and don’t care about the issue while being very supportive and accomodating (most per capita) to Ukrainian refugees.
More info in my comment under a post about the shredder escapade last week
This is the best summary I could come up with:
While Israeli politicians of all stripes have sharply rebuked the International Criminal Court’s request for arrest warrants for its top officials, European leaders’ reactions are split.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan filed applications Monday for arrests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, as well as the commander of Hamas’s military wing and Israel’s defense minister, citing allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Israel and the State of Palestine.
“The ICC Chief Prosecutor’s proposal to issue an arrest warrant for the representatives of a democratically elected government together with the leaders of an Islamist terrorist organisation is appalling and completely unacceptable,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala wrote.
“This action does nothing to help reach a pause in the fighting, get hostages out or get humanitarian aid in and make progress towards a sustainable ceasefire that we want to see,” a spokesperson for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.
According to Professor Zinaida Miller, an international law expert at Northeastern University, the ICC’s decision to apply for the arrest warrants suggests a degree of certainty that the applications will succeed.
At the same time, the narrow focus of the allegations on individual officials means there will be a “limited capacity to address the larger context of these crimes other than in ways that directly bear on the criminal process,” she said.
The original article contains 647 words, the summary contains 226 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
