Netanyahu Has Called The ICC “Antisemitic” For Issuing His Arrest Warrant For War Crimes In Gaza
"[The ICC] is falsely accusing me, the democratically elected prime minister of the State of Israel and Israel’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant, of deliberately targeting civilians, this when we do everything in our power to avoid civilian casualties."
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the International Criminal Court of being "antisemitic" after it issued arrest warrants for him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
"[The ICC] is falsely accusing me, the democratically elected prime minister of the State of Israel and Israel’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant, of deliberately targeting civilians, this when we do everything in our power to avoid civilian casualties," Netanyahu said in a video message on Nov. 21.
He instead blamed Hamas for "doing everything in their power" to keep civilians in Gaza in harm's way, including shooting them and using them as human shield.
Netanyahu also rejected the ICC's accusations that he and Gallant were employing a deliberate policy of starvation in Gaza, saying that Israel had supplied with 700,000 tons of food but that it was Hamas who were routinely rooting the food.
"Yet just in the last few weeks Israel facilitated the vaccination of 97 percent of the people of Gaza against polio," Netanyahu said. "This doesn’t prevent the court of accusing us of genocide.
Netanyahu went on to say that no war is "more just" than the war Israel has been waging in Gaza, adding that the arrest warrants were issued by a "rogue prosecutor" and "biased judges".
He said that the judges were falsely accusing the only democracy in the Middle East and thus imperiling the right of all democracies to defend themselves.
He called out the judges for "doing nothing" against dictatorships in Iran, Syria and Yemen and only issuing an arrest warrant for Hamas' military commander, Mohammed Deif, who Israel claims to have killed in July.
He said that Israel will not recognize the validity of the ICC's decision, adding that "no biased anti-Israel decision in The Hague will prevent the State of Israel from defending its citizens."
More On Israel's Genocide In Gaza
Cherry Mohamed
Isha Jain
Cherry Mohamed
