Will Benjamin Netanyahu be arrested if he enters Spain as ordered by the International Criminal Court? “I don’t like to make political fiction,” replied the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, in the corridors of Congress after the plenary session on the Middle East: “But I was very clear on this point: the international criminal system The Court has a Rome Statute of which Spain is the founder and which implies a series of obligations.
Albares continued: “And we will respect all the obligations imposed by the Rome Statute and support for the International Criminal Court. We are among the top ten contributors and financiers of the International Criminal Court for all its actions. Today I announced a new contribution. Our position is therefore very clear: we will respect Spain’s obligations, just like the rest of the member states of the Criminal Court.”
Already last Thursday, when the arrest warrant issued by the ICC became known, foreign sources declared: “Spain respects the decision of the International Criminal Court and will respect its commitments and obligations in relation to the Rome Statute and the international law”.
The EU’s high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, recalled that the ICC’s decision is “binding on all states parties to the treaty, including all EU members.”
“It is not a political decision, it is a decision of an international court of justice, and the decision of the court must be respected and implemented,” Borrell said, when asked about the ICC decision during a joint press conference with the Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs. , Ayman Safadi, in Amman.
“I take note of the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister (Israeli Benjamin) Netanyahu, former Defense Minister (Yoav) Gallant and Hamas leaders,” he said. he added in his speech.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants requested in May by the Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes. According to the Court’s statute, “the State Party which has received a request for provisional arrest or for arrest and surrender shall immediately take the necessary measures for the arrest in accordance with its domestic law and the provisions of Part IX of this Statute. . Once the detaining State has ordered the surrender, the detainee will be made available to the Court as soon as possible.
The arrest warrants are classified “secret”, but the court made part of the information public because “it appears that behavior similar to that envisaged in the arrest warrant is being implemented”, affirms the Court international criminal law in a press release. . “Furthermore, the court considers that it is in the interest of the victims and their families that they be informed of the existence of the arrest warrants.”
“As for the crimes, the chamber found reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the following crimes: the war crime of starving as a method of warfare; and crimes against humanity, murder, persecution and other inhumane acts,” the statement said.
Netanyahu called the charges against him “absurd and false” and rejected the order issued by the ICC. “The ICC’s anti-Semitic decision amounts to the modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end that way too,” he said.
The judges also find that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that the two Israeli political leaders have “criminal responsibility” as civilian superiors for the war crime of “directly and deliberately attacking the civilian population.”
The Court finds that there are also reasonable grounds to believe that both “knowingly and intentionally denied the civilian population of Gaza essential elements for their survival, including food, water and medical supplies”. The court’s statement maintains that when this humanitarian assistance occurred, “it was in response to pressure from the international community or requests from the United States” for not complying with its obligations under international humanitarian law.
The Court justifies the “crime of persecution” by affirming that “the population was attacked for political and/or national reasons”.
More than 44,000 Palestinians have died in Gaza since October 2023 and thousands are under the rubble, according to local authorities, who denounce that Israel is attacking the houses and buildings where the displaced are housed, as well as the tent camps of those who have relocated.
