Liberman shrugs off Palestinian ICC threat over ax remark

Yisrael Beytenu chief says he’ll revoke citizenship of Joint List spokesperson for saying Islamic State learned brutality from Zionists

By AFP and ToI Staff 10 March 2015, 11:56 pm

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Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Liberman (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Tuesday brushed off Palestinian threats to haul him before an international court for proposing to behead Arab citizens disloyal to the state.

“I saw the Palestinian Authority will go to the International Criminal Court in the Hague over my remarks that we must act forcefully against our enemies and those who act against the State of Israel,” he wrote on Facebook.

The ICC is based in The Hague in the Netherlands.

“They will get an answer to that from me as defense minister,” he said, reflecting his aspirations for the powerful post after the March 17 general election.

Liberman on Sunday attended an elections panel at a college, with media reports quoting him as saying of Israeli Arabs that “those who are with us should get everything.”

However “those who are against us… one must take an ax and chop their heads off, otherwise we won’t survive here”.

Liberman has for years called for the revocation of citizenship of Arab citizens not sufficiently “loyal” to Israel and its symbols.

During the current election campaign he also said that imposing the death penalty for “terrorists” would be a prerequisite to his joining a coalition.

The Palestinian Authority in a statement denounced his “barbarism” and demanded his arrest and prosecution before the ICC.

The Palestinians will be eligible to file complaints to the ICC from April 1.

Liberman Tuesday also denounced remarks by a spokesman of the Arab Joint List, in which he compared the Islamic State group and the Zionist movement.

“Where did IS learn these crimes? Look what the Zionist movement did in 1948. Rapes, pillaging, murders, massacres, committed here in these parts as well,” Raja Zaatry said at an elections discussion at a university in central Israel.

Liberman said he would act to revoke Zaatry’s citizenship “after the elections.”

The latest polls predict Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu will win five or six seats in the 120-member parliament, which could make it difficult for him to receive a significant ministerial position, were he to join a coalition.