“Historical insult”: Israel’s government and opposition condemn Hague petition against Netanyahu international

Hours before demonstrations were held in Jerusalem demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation and early elections, the government and Israel’s opposition set aside their differences to accept Monday’s decision with a unanimous outcry from the prosecutor’s office. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague requested arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his defense chief, Yoav Galant.

“Insult”, “a crime of historic scale”, “hatred towards Jews unprecedented since Nazi propaganda”… were the reactions immediately following the announcement. The prosecutor’s office’s decision strikes a particularly sensitive chord by symbolically placing the two Israeli leaders and Hamas, the organization considered a terrorist by the United States and the European Union that launched the October 7 attack, on the same level. Has attacked. The prosecutor’s office also calls for the arrest of the leadership of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, and its political leader, Ismail Haniya.

The Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, noted this in a statement, in which he described the decision as “reprehensible” and “a direct and unrelenting attack on the victims of October 7 and the 128 people kidnapped in Gaza.” “While the murderers and rapists of Hamas commit crimes against humanity against our brothers and sisters, the Attorney General (Karim Khan) simultaneously refers to the disgusting Nazi monsters of Hamas as well as the Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Israel: A “historic disgrace that will always be remembered.” ” Katz said he would contact his counterparts in “major countries of the world” and ask them to publicly declare that they reject the decision and that they will not comply with arrest warrants if they are issued. .

The country’s president, Isaac Herzog, a consensus figure in the Labor Party, spoke of the verdict in “bad faith” which “encourages terrorists” and “shows the extent to which the international judicial system has collapsed.” Is in danger.”

“We will not forget who started this war (…) We will not forget our hostages, whose safe return must be the main concern of the international community. “We hope that all leaders of the free world will openly condemn this decision and strongly reject it,” he added in a statement.

Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, the leaders of the two far-right parties (Religious Zionism and Jewish Power) that have ruled in coalition with Netanyahu since the 2022 elections, have the harshest words. “Not since Nazi propaganda have we seen such a display of hypocrisy and hatred towards the Jews as was displayed by the Hague Tribunal. Finance Minister Smotrich said, “The Nazis also talked in the name of ‘morality’, when the only thing behind it was anti-Semitism.”

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Ben Gvir, who holds the national security portfolio, sees a demonstration in the context of the alleged genocide case in the prosecutor’s statement that “sending representatives of Israel to the hearing before the anti-Semitism court was a serious mistake from the beginning”. South Africa took the initiative in the UN International Court of Justice – a separate instance from the ICC, although both are based in The Hague – and had previously advocated a boycott. Ben Gvir has now proposed responding by intensifying the offensive in Gaza, where some 800,000 people have fled Rafah, a last resort, in the past two weeks under orders from the Israeli military and fearing a wider ground offensive.

unanimous criticism

Criticism is not limited to the partners in the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, which Netanyahu has retained through 2022. For example, Benny Gantz is the same leader who comes from the opposition and who this Saturday threatened to quit if they do not agree before June 8 on a realistic strategic plan for Gaza, the Unity Executive assured for war. that the State of Israel fights “in the most moral way in history”, so comparing its leaders to “bloodthirsty terrorists” is “moral blindness.” If the prosecutor’s request goes forward, he said, it would be “historic “It will be a crime of proportions that will be remembered for generations.”

Yair Lapid, a former prime minister who has differences with Netanyahu politically and personally, has also joined the criticism of the decision that touches on an issue that is considered a state issue and a war that most citizens support. . Lapid, who preferred to remain in the opposition rather than enter the war executive due to his distrust of Netanyahu, considered it “inexcusable” to request arrest warrants for the leaders of Hamas in Gaza, including Yahia Sinwar and its military wing. , Mohammed Deif, who is believed to have been hiding in tunnels in Gaza for seven months. “No comparison is possible,” he said, before expressing confidence that the United States, Israel’s main ally, would also support them on this occasion.

The symbolic equation has also hurt Hamas. The prosecutor called for the arrest in Qatar of its three leaders: Sinwar, Deif and Haniya. In a statement, the Islamic movement expressed regret at the “attempt to equate the victim with the perpetrator” and said the petition against Israeli leaders was limited to only two and was “seven months late.”

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