From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 21, 2024
France says no ‘equivalence’ between Israel and Hamas
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French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne urges people not to draw an “equivalence” between the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s arrest warrant requests for Israeli and Hamas leaders.
“These simultaneous requests for arrest warrants should not create an equivalence between Hamas and Israel,” Sejourne tells lawmakers in parliament.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said yesterday that he requested arrest warrants for top Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohamed Deif, as well as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on suspicions of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Sejourne says that Hamas was “a terrorist group that celebrated the October 7 attacks” that killed some 1,200 people and took another 252 hostages.
Israel, meanwhile, is “a democratic state that must respect international law in the conduct of a war that it did not itself start,” Sejourne says.
“France recognizes the independence of the ICC, it’s a principle,” Sejourne says.
“It will now be up to the judges at the ICC to decide on whether these warrants will be granted. They will do it in an independent way,” he adds.
Insisting on France’s “solidarity towards both Israelis and Palestinians,” Sejourne says Paris “is committed to finding a political solution” to the conflict.
The Times of Israel Community.