The President of the United States, Joe Biden, called this Thursday “scandalous“The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
“The ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is scandalous. Let me be clear once again: IRegardless of what the ICC may imply, there is no equivalence -none- between Israel and Hamas. “We will always stand with Israel in the face of threats to its security,” he said in a statement.
The ICC on Thursday requested the arrest and surrender of Netanyahu and Gallant as well as the military leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Mohammed Deif, although Israel has already declared him dead in a June attack on the Gaza Strip, which could not be independently confirmed.
Previously, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre expressed her “total” rejection of the ICC’s decision, adding that she remained “deeply concerned” by the haste of the prosecutor and the “worrying errors in the process“. Thus, he recalled that the ICC “has no jurisdiction” over the military offensive launched by Israel on the Gaza Strip. He considers the decision of the ICC prosecutor’s office, headed by Karim Khan, to request “hasty” arrest warrants.
The President-elect of the United States, Republican Donald Trump, has not yet commented oneven if Michael Waltz, appointed by Trump as White House security adviser, stressed “a forceful response to the CPI’s anti-Semitic prejudices and the UN in January”, the date on which the tycoon takes office and takes over the Oval Office.
“The ICC has no credibility and the US government has refuted these accusations. Israel legally defended its people and its borders against genocidal terrorists,” the MP expressed through his profile on the social network X.
Neither the United States nor Israel is part of the ICC
After the arrest warrants were issued, Netanyahu called the accusation of the ICC as “absurd and false” and an “anti-Semitic” decision, and assured that “there is nothing more just than the war that Israel is waging in Gaza.” Meanwhile, Hamas has taken action: “International justice is with us against the Zionist entity,” it declares.
The ICC does not have a police force to arrest suspects, but its 125 member states, including the United Kingdom and European Union countries, have an obligation to cooperate with the court. Neither the United States nor Israel is part of this tribunalbut Palestine has been admitted as a member since 2015.
