Netanyahu: ICC arrest warrants would be distortion of justice, stain on humanity, unprecedented hate crime

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the International Criminal Court in The Hague of trying to prevent Israel from defending itself against terrorism amid reports that the UN court could issue arrest warrants for some of Israel’s top officials.

“Eighty years after the Holocaust, the international bodies that were established to prevent another Holocaust are considering denying the Jewish state the right to defend itself against those who came to commit genocide against us, and are still actively working to do so,” the prime minister says in a video statement. “What an absurdity, what a distortion of justice and history.”

Should the court issue arrest warrants for war crimes, it would be “a scandal on a historical scale,” he adds, calling such a move “an indelible stain on all of humanity” and an “unprecedented antisemitic hate crime.”

Accusing the ICC of intentionally trying to paralyze Israel’s political and military leadership, Netanyahu vows that “no decision, neither in The Hague or anywhere else, will harm our determination to achieve all the goals of the war,” which include bringing the hostages home to Israel, removing Hamas from power and ensuring no threat remains in Gaza, and stabilizing Israel’s northern borders.

He ends his statement with a call for world leaders to come out against the reported plan to issue arrest warrants, warning that such a move would harm not only Israel’s right to self-defense but that of “all democracies in the world.”

US Congress members from both parties have reportedly warned the ICC that Washington will retaliate if any arrest warrants are issued, and other allied nations are reported to have also expressed their opposition to such a move.