“Drawing moral equivalence between a democratic state and a terrorist organisation shames the ICC”
(Brussels, May 21, 2024) The European Jewish Congress is appalled by the decision of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to request arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on alleged war crimes charges.
On Monday, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan announced his intention to seek warrants from the court for Netanyahu and Gallant alongside three leaders of the Hamas terror organisation.
“It is beyond obscene that the ICC prosecutor should make any moral equivalence between leaders of a democratic state defending its own citizens after a brutal invasion with a terror organisation that uses rape, murder and kidnap as its principal tools of war,” EJC President Ariel Muzicant said.
“The singling out of the Jewish state and its leaders follows in a long and inglorious tradition of singling out Jews and accusing them for the most heinous of crimes without justification,” he added.
“By this unconsidered and unjustified action, the ICC Chief Prosecutor has given succour to every Jew hater the world over to target Jewish communities and individual Jews,“ he said. “This call demeans the ICC and its prosecutor, undermines international justice and does absolutely nothing for the cause of peace in the Middle East.”
The EJC calls on European governments and the European Union to strongly and unequivocally condemn this call by the ICC prosecutor and to demand its immediate withdrawal.
