(Brussels, November 21, 2024) – The European Jewish Congress is appalled by the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on alleged war crimes charges.
On Thursday, the three trial judges of the ICC court decided to issue the warrants on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for alleged actions in Israel’s war with the Hamas terror organization in Gaza, The court also decided to issue an arrest warrant for the presumed deceased Gaza terror chief, Mohammed Deif.
“In issuing for the first time arrest warrants for leaders of a democratic country together with one for a dead terrorist, the ICC has shown itself to be no longer fit for purpose,” EJC president Ariel Muzicant said. “It is beyond shocking that the leaders of a democratic state defending its own citizens can be made into international fugitives after a brutal invasion with a terror organisation that uses rape, murder and kidnap as its principal tools of war,” he added.
“Just this very week, the UN’s own agencies noted that Hamas have been looting dozens of aid trucks for their own population, yet leaders of the Jewish state are hauled before the ICC for purported breaches of international law and crimes against humanity,” he said.
The EJC calls on the heads of European governments and the European Union to strongly and unequivocally condemn this call by the ICC and to demand its immediate overturning.
