Herzog: Genocide case against Israel at the World Court is ‘blood libel’

The genocide case against Israel in the International Court of Justice is a form of “blood libel,” President Isaac Herzog says during an event held at the President’s Residence in the memory of IDF soldiers killed in the war against Hamas in Gaza.

“We are fighting an exceptionally just campaign. A campaign for the return of the hostages, those who are held and tortured by Hamas murderers in an unparalleled crime against humanity,” says Herzog.

“We are fighting a campaign to restore security to our citizens, women and men, elderly and babies. A whole people which Hamas didn’t just declare their desire to wipe from face of the earth, but actually set out on a brutal massacre to destroy – and is still working hard to do so.”

Stressing that Israel has “the full right to self-defense,” Herzog says that “everyone with sense can see that Israel is acting in accordance with international law.”

“The very fact that the hearing at the court in The Hague was held on the eve of International Holocaust Memorial Day, to judge whether the democratic, moral and responsible State of Israel, which rose from the ashes of the Holocaust with the overwhelming support of the family of nations and its institutions was guilty of committing genocide, is a blood libel that undermines the very values on which this court was established,” he says in sharp criticism of the ruling.

He adds that Israel is committed to ensuring that humanitarian aid continues to enter Gaza, and says he is “deeply sorry” for the tragedy that innocent Palestinians in Gaza are going through.