France is “obligated” to cooperate with the International Criminal Court, like 123 other countries, to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, accused of crimes against humanity.
What will France do if Benjamin Netanyahu surrenders his role? The position of the French government, the Elysée and the Quai d’Orsay are very clear: Paris “supports the International Criminal Court, its independence, and the fight against impunity in all situations”. A press release was even written expressly to explain it, when the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, requested arrest warrants against Israeli leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
This Thursday, November 21, the International Criminal Court followed the request of its prosecutor and issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime ministerhis former defense minister Yoav Gallant and the leader of Hamas, Mohammed Deïf. France is therefore required to arrest these three personalities (Mohammed Deïf was announced dead by Israel) if they go to the territory.
The International Criminal Court gives in a long press release published on its website the reasons which prompted it to issue these arrest warrants. She says she has “reasonable grounds to believe” that Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant “bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of using starvation as a method of war.” The court also suspects the Israeli Prime Minister and his former minister of “crimes against humanity”, specifying that there are reasons to believe that they are responsible for: “murders, persecution and other inhumane acts”, and for “attacks intentionally directed against the civilian population”.
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15:01 – Netanyhaou reacts to the arrest warrant and calls the ICC “anti-Semitic”
The Israeli Prime Minister reacted to the decision of the International Criminal Court, in a press release, by comparing the arrest warrants to a new “Dreyfus trial”. The Israeli Prime Minister also described the Court as “anti-Semitic”. “Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions and accusations” of the ICC, described as a “politically biased and discriminatory” institution. Benjamin Nétanyhaou believes that there is no war “more just” than that waged by Israel since October 7, 2023, “after the greatest massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Shoah”. Hamas, for its part, welcomed “an important step towards justice”.