The majority of Brits will say this is 12 months too late but, finally the ICC issues arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu.
A warrant has also been issued for former defence minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The ICC issues arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu
Thursday’s move is a dramatic escalation of legal proceedings over Israel’s offensive in Gaza, and marks the first time that the court, which was set up in 2002, has issued a warrant for a western-backed leader.
In the Israeli Knesset member of parliament had to be forcibly silenced and forced out of the chambers, for saying that Netanyahu had become a baby killer in Gaza, it demonstrated the changing of times towards Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Netanyahu calls the arrest warrant antisemitic
Netanyahu has reacted angrily to the move and rejects the idea of being able to held accountable. Netanyahu calls the arrest warrant antisemitic.
Netanyahu has said he “rejects with disgust” what he called “the absurd and false actions” of the ICC in issuing an arrest warrant against him.
Netanyahu said the arrest warrants were “antisemitic” and compared them to a “modern-day Dreyfus trial,” in reference to the 19 century case of Alfred Dreyfus in France.
Dreyfus, a French soldier of Jewish descent, was wrongfully convicted of treason in 1894, in what was widely seen as an antisemitic decision, for allegedly handing French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. He was finally exonerated in 1906 after his case split French society for many years.
Top prosecutor urges members to act on arrest warrants
The ICC’s top prosecutor urges members to act on arrest warrants, it means that the ICC’s 124 member states — which include most European and Latin American countries and many in Africa and Asia — would be obliged to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they entered their territory.
The International Criminal Court‘s top prosecutor Karim Khan on Thursday urged the body’s 124 members as well as non-members to act on arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (also known as Mohammed Deif).
Global PSC campaign will feel victorious
But the court has no means of enforcing the warrants if they do not, but can any leader afford to stand by while they defy the rule of law? in front of no doubt, what will be extensive protest?
But members of the global PSC campaign will not care, the signal of intent by the ICC will give them hope that the war is coming to an end.
To them these warrants show the impact their protests have had, and proved they have worked. And will reinforce the sense that despite the power of Israel’s lobbies, it has become increasingly isolated internationally over the genocide in Gaza in the besieged Gaza strip.
Will Netanyahu dare leave Israel on any other trips or does this signal the end of his premiership, lets see how this unfolds.