Israel urges allies to pull funds from ICC

After the International Criminal Court announced that it would begin launching a probe into possible Israeli war crimes during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, Israel says it’s lobbying its allies who are members of the ICC to try to defund the tribunal in retaliation.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman tells Israel Radio on Sunday that Jerusalem “will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia and in Germany simply to stop funding it,” Reuters reports.

“This body represents no one. It is a political body,” Liberman says of the ICC in the Hague. “There are a quite a few countries — I’ve already taken telephone calls about this — that also think there is no justification for this body’s existence.”

Liberman is set to meet with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird in Jerusalem on Sunday, where he’s expected to raise the issue.