According to the ICC decision, every Israeli minister, officer, or soldier is now at risk of being detained and taken hostage by numerous courts around the world.
Two weeks after the hunt for Israelis in the streets of Amsterdam and still in the Netherlands, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has decided to issue, without scruple, arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. This scandalous decision is unprecedented in the annals of contemporary history of the free world.
It should be noted that Israel has actively participated in the United Nations deliberations on the establishment of an international criminal court since the 1950s. It supported the idea of establishing a permanent international judicial institution that would fairly and truly reflect the principles and established procedures of criminal law, with a view to ensuring that those responsible for heinous crimes and the most serious crimes of concern to the international community were brought to justice.
This international court was created after the Holocaust precisely to hunt down and bring to justice all the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, particularly those responsible for the Jewish genocide. How can we draw a parallel between the Israeli democratic power and the Nazis or compare it to totalitarian and bloodthirsty regimes such as Iran or Syria? Which international court judged Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or Bashar al-Assad?
It is sad to note that universal injustice triumphs and the politicization of judges remains the scourge of modern times. Worse, within the international court, the main prosecutor is suspected of sexual harassment. A true theater of the absurd.
Everything is permitted in order to judge the Jewish state and its people. They dare to issue arrest warrants against the leaders of a democratic country, against a state where justice is implacable, and against a representative of a people who offered humanity the Ten Commandments.
According to the ICC procedure, Interpol will have to be notified, which will issue “red notices” to all the police forces on the planet, alert documents that, once published, will allow for the global tracking of criminals wanted around the world. Netanyahu and Galant will be among the leading groups. Let us recall that the International Criminal Police Organization, whose headquarters are in Lyon, France, came under the control of the Gestapo in 1938. Incredible but true.
How can we put the leaders of a country that has been the victim of genocide and terrorist attacks on an equal footing with notorious criminals and barbarians mad about God who have sworn to continue to murder, rape, and take citizens hostage until Israel is completely wiped off the map? How can we trust international law and its institutions? It is also absurd and revolting to mention Mohammed Deif, head of the armed wing of Hamas, in these arrest warrants. Isn’t he dead? How can we take a decision that is dubious a priori seriously? Isn’t it discriminatory? Premeditated? Politicized and simply stupid.
Worse still, according to the ICC decision, every Israeli minister, officer, or soldier is now at risk of being detained and taken hostage by numerous courts around the world.
The international court is silent on the genocidal activities of Hamas, which is recognized by many countries as a terrorist organization. Not a word of recognition of the Israeli policy that refuses to deliberately target civilians, and that Israel implements laws, treaties, resolutions, and conventions. No condemnation of Palestinian leaders who use hospitals, schools and UN buildings as terrorist bases and weapons depots, and that many civilian deaths are directly caused by Hamas. How, then, can we accuse Israel of “genocide” when the IDF’s efforts are aimed at minimizing the harm done to the civilian population? How can we talk about famine when hundreds of trucks deliver food every day? Why not simply tell the truth and condemn the Hamas gangs of armed robbers who refuse to share the necessary food with their poor compatriots?
In exercising its right to self-defense, Israel is confronted with an enemy that is blatantly using the civilian population as a human shield. The young IDF soldiers are not criminal and bloodthirsty mercenaries, as the report tried to demonstrate without success. IDF medics have even saved innocent Palestinian women, children, and babies at the risk of losing their own lives. All of this does not seem to raise an eyebrow in the criminal court.
Unfortunately, the decision of the Hague judges encourages Islamist leaders to continue terrorist acts. It gives the green light to all pro-Palestinians and critics to boycott the Jewish state and to demonstrate their hatred towards all Israelis. International reactions prove that antisemitism is omnipresent, injustice triumphs, and deception gains points.
Despite everything, and fortunately, there is a glimmer of hope: We see that Israel has true friends, many of whom are in solidarity with our just cause, men of goodwill, sincere and courageous.
In this context, we welcome the reactions within the Israeli political class. All political parties, both left and right, have united against the ICC decision. Despite the deep differences between the opposition and the current coalition and the harsh criticism of Netanyahu, the Israeli people as a whole continue to defend their state against all universal injustices.
Finally, in order to win the war and justify our fight in international bodies, the government has the duty to support the Israeli judiciary, and all those who hold the conscience of the state of Israel and defend us with irrefutable legal arguments.
Amb. Freddy Eytan, a former Foreign Ministry senior adviser who served in Israel’s embassies in Paris and Brussels, was Israel’s first Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
