Israel ambassador blasts Germany for saying it would obey ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu

When asked if Germany would abide by the ICC’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman replied, ‘Of course. Yes, We obey the law.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Israel’s ambassador to Germany strongly criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s office for saying that if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues a warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he would be arrested if he steps on German soil.

When asked if Germany would obey the ICC’s warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest, Chancellor Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, responded, “Of course. Yes, we abide by the law.”

Israel’s ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor condemned the statement on X, and wrote, “This is outrageous! The public statement that Israel has the right to self-defense loses credibility if our hands are tied as soon as we defend ourselves.”

He added that the German principle of “Staatsräson is being put to the test.”

“Staatsräson,” translated as “raison d’etre” or “reason of state” is a term former German Chancellor Angela Merkel used to characterize the pivotal role Israel’s security plays in Germany’s national identity.

Following the Hamas massacre on October 7th, Chancellor Scholz said, “It was Germany’s duty, given its history and its responsibility for the Holocaust, to stand up against antisemitism.”

Prosor also condemned the moral equivalency in ICC prosecutor Karim Khan’s announcement that he would be seeking a warrant for the arrest of Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at the same time that he also requested warrants for the arrest of Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif.

Prosor wrote that Germany’s Chancellor “equates a democratic government with Hamas, thereby demonizing and delegitimizing Israel and the Jewish people. He has completely lost his moral compass. Germany has a responsibility to readjust this compass.”

Khan said the charges against Netanyahu and Gallant include “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”

The charges against Sinwar, Haniyeh, and Deif include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention.”

Several European leaders condemned the ICC for making an apparent moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel.

“These simultaneous requests for arrest warrants should not create an equivalence between Hamas and Israel,” French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne told French parliamentarians Tuesday.

Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, denounced Khan’s decision as “appalling and completely unacceptable.”

Benjamin NetanyahuICCICC arrest warrantIsrael-Germany relations