lThe moment of astonishment in Israel did not last. The decision by International Criminal Court (ICC) judges to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity was only made public on Thursday, November 21. , when Israeli political leaders from All Parties joined their voices, opposing international jurisdiction and echoing the views of the Prime Minister. He immediately described the judges’ decision as“anti-semitic (…) comparable to a Dreyfus trial today that will end in the same way”.
Benny Gantz, the general at the head of the National Unity Party who joined the Israeli war cabinet after the Hamas attacks of October 7, before resigning resoundingly eight months later, and who is biding his time to succeed Benjamin Netanyahu , described the ICC judges’ decision as“moral blindness, a shameful stain of historical dimension that will never be forgotten.” Yaïr Golan, who assumed the leadership of the Democrats, a political group inherited from the Labor left, and who is trying to unite the opposition against the government coalition strongly influenced by the extreme right, also speaks of a decision “shameful” and believe that“Israel has and always will have the right to defend itself”taking up the elements of language within the government.
The leader of the opposition, Yaïr Lapid, declared that “arrest warrants constitute rewards offered to terrorists”. An official Israeli source used the same vocabulary Thursday night, evoking a “victory of terror over justice”a decision ” absurd “ WHO “makes Israel’s enemies absolutely happy” and stated that a “appeal procedure” was under study, which meant a possible challenge to the Court’s jurisdiction.
“A key moment for our judicial system”
For Michael Sfard, a lawyer specialized in the defense of human rights, the issuance of these orders is a “giant test” both for the ICC, which, “For the first time, he accuses officials of such a powerful country, whose main ally is the United States, two months before Donald Trump arrives at the White House”but, also, for Israel. “These mandates paint our country in the darkest shades of crimes against humanity and war crimes. This is a decisive moment for the idea we have of our nation. Will we continue to close ranks with those accused of these crimes or will we reassess the way the war is being fought in Gaza? It is also a key moment for our judicial system, which has just suffered a kind of gigantic sentence. »
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