Netanyahu’s office rejects ICC arrest warrant, compares it to ‘Dreyfus trial’

The International Criminal Court’s “antisemitic decision” to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant “is equivalent to a modern Dreyfus trial,” the Prime Minister’s Office declares in a statement.

Pledging that the court’s decision would not deter Israel from protecting its citizens, the PMO says it rejects “with disgust” the court’s “false” charges — and asserts that they stem from efforts by Karim Khan, the court’s top prosecutor, to “save his skin from the serious charges against him for sexual harassment” as well as the beliefs of “biased judges motivated by antisemitic hatred of Israel.”

“That is why the prosecutor lied when he told American senators that he would not act against Israel before he got here and heard its side. That is why he suddenly canceled his arrival in Israel last May, a few days after suspicions were raised against him for sexual harassment, and announced his intention to issue arrest warrants against the prime minister and former defense minister,” the PMO alleges.

Earlier this month, the ICC announced that it would launch an external probe into sexual misconduct accusations against Kahn.

Khan has categorically denied the accusations that he tried to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship, and the decision to launch an external probe came with the court under pressure from US senators not to issue warrants over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza until the misconduct claims are investigated.

AP reported that Khan traveled frequently with the woman after transferring her to his office from another department at the ICC’s headquarters in The Hague.

During one foreign trip, Khan allegedly asked the woman to rest with him on a hotel bed and then “sexually touched her,” according to whistleblower documents shared with the court’s watchdog and seen by the AP. Later, he came to her room at 3 a.m. and knocked on the door for 10 minutes.

Other allegedly nonconsensual behavior cited in the documents included locking the door of his office and sticking his hand in her pocket. He also allegedly asked her on several occasions to go on a vacation together.

The Associated Press contributed to his report.