From the Liveblog of
Monday, May 20, 2024
106 MKs sign letter slamming ICC prosecutor’s move to seek arrest warrants for Israeli, Hamas leaders
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
One hundred and six out of 120 Knesset lawmakers from both sides of the aisle sign a letter condemning International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over the war in Gaza.
The text is read out loud in the Knesset plenum by Speaker Amir Ohana.
“The State of Israel is in the midst of a just war against a criminal terrorist organization. The IDF is the most moral army in the world. Our heroic soldiers fight with unparalleled courage and morality, in accordance with international law, as no other army has ever done,” the letter states.
“The scandalous comparison of the prosecutor in The Hague between the leaders of Israel and the heads of the terrorist organization Hamas is an indelible historical crime and a clear manifestation of antisemitism.”
Comparing democratic Israel, which “defends human rights and fights” and is defending itself, to Hamas terrorists who “kidnapped, butchered, burned and raped its citizens” is a “distortion” which Israelis “reject with disgust.”
“80 years after the Holocaust, no one will tie the hands of the Jewish state [to prevent it] from defending itself,” the letter states.
