Meeting UN General Assembly head, Herzog calls ICC warrant against Netanyahu a ‘reward for terror’

President Isaac Herzog condemns the exclusion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the World Economic Forum in Davos as “a reward for terror,” in a meeting with UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock in Switzerland ahead of the president’s participation in the summit.

“It is unacceptable that shameful international politics — repeatedly weaponized against the State of Israel — are being used by international legal forums to prevent senior Israelis, from the only democracy in the Middle East, from attending the [summit], a conference that aims to shape the future of the world and the Middle East,” Herzog says in the meeting, according to a statement from his office.

Netanyahu, who has attended the conference in years past, is currently prevented from traveling to member states of the International Criminal Court due to the court’s arrest warrants issued for him and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of war crimes committed in the conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

“Preventing [Netanyahu], or, for that matter, [Gallant,] from attending a global forum aiming to shape the future of the Middle East by such legal means is a reward for terror,” Herzog states in the readout, which adds that he intends to raise the issue of “the exclusion of senior Israelis from international forums, as well as the revocation of the sanctions imposed by the International Criminal Court” at the conference.

“Israel is not only fighting to protect its people, it is on the front line defending the entire free world against the Iranian regime’s empire of evil and its terror proxies,” Herzog continues, calling it “essential” that the international community and European nations “take action to bring this shameful episode of the imposition of illegitimate sanctions to a swift end.”