U.S. officials reacted angrily to Monday's request by Karim Khan, the prosecutor general of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, for international arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh, and Hamas Military Wing Chief Mohammed Deif on charges of war crimes.
US President Joe Biden said in a statement that "the prosecutor's request is outrageous. And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence - none - between Israel and Hamas." He added: "We will always stand by Israel against threats to its security."
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in an extended statement that the US "reject" the announcement about the request for the arrest warrants.
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President Joe Biden, ICC Proscutor General Karim Khan
(Photos: Luis Acosta/AFP, Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
"The United States fundamentally rejects the announcement today from the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that he is applying for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, together with warrants for Hamas terrorists.
"We reject the Prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans," the statement from Blinken said.
Moreover, the United States has been clear since well before the current conflict that the ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter. The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction, Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the Prosecutor's rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed. In other situations, the Prosecutor deferred to national investigations and worked with states to allow them time to investigate. The Prosecutor did not afford the same opportunity to Israel, which has ongoing investigations into allegations against its personnel," the statement also said.
"There are also deeply troubling process questions. Despite not being a member of the court, Israel was prepared to cooperate with the Prosecutor. In fact, the Prosecutor himself was scheduled to visit Israel as early as next week to discuss the investigation and hear from the Israeli Government. The Prosecutor's staff was supposed to land in Israel today to coordinate the visit. Israel was informed that they did not board their flight around the same time that the Prosecutor went on cable television to announce the charges, These and other circumstances call into question the legitimacy and credibility of this investigation.
"Fundamentally, this decision does nothing to help, and could jeopardize, ongoing efforts to reach a cease-fire agreement that would get hostages out and surge humanitarian assistance in, which are the goals the Untied States continues to pursue relentlessly," Blinken's statement concluded.
The Hague Criminal Court responded to Blinken's criticism. The court told CNN that it tried "to improve the dialogue with Israel for three years and to obtain information relevant to our investigations. Despite considerable efforts, the prosecutor's office did not receive any information that testified that real action was taken against the alleged crimes or the suspects themselves."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also condemned the decision of the IDC prosecutor.
"The absurd and false order of the prosecutor in The Hague is not only directed against the Prime Minister of Israel and the Minister of Defense - it is directed against the entire State of Israel. It is directed against the IDF soldiers, who are fighting with supreme heroism against the vile Hamas murderers, who attacked us with terrible cruelty on October 7."
He addressed the prosecutor, Karim Khan, directly: "With what audacity do you dare compare the monsters of Hamas to the soldiers of the IDF, the most moral army in the world? With what audacity do you compare between the Hamas that murdered, burned, butchered, raped and kidnapped our brothers and sisters, and the soldiers of the IDF who fight a just war that has no equal in morality."
"As Prime Minister of Israel, I reject with disgust the comparison of the prosecutor in The Hague between democratic Israel and the murderers of Hamas. This is a complete distortion of reality. This is exactly what the new antisemitism looks like, it has moved from the campuses in the West to the court in The Hague. What a shame. Citizens of Israel, I promise you one thing - the attempt to tie our hands will fail."
Some 106 Knesset lawmakers signed a statement against the ICC: "The State of Israel is in the midst of a just war against a criminal terrorist organization. The IDF is the most moral army in the world. Our heroic soldiers fight with unparalleled courage and morality, in accordance with international law, as no other army has ever done. The scandalous comparison of the prosecutor in The Hague between the leaders of the terrorist organization Hamas is an indelible historical crime and a clear expression of antisemitism. Eighty years after the Holocaust, no one will tie the hands of the Jewish state to defend itself."