“I couldn’t be clearer, Israel has every right to protect its population and to get the hostages back,” says ICC prosecutor.
By World Israel News
The head prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) claimed that he did not equate Israel with the Hamas terror group, but his simultaneous requests to file arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials and Hamas members tell a different story.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan sparked outrage last week after he urged the court to issue warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, at the same time he requested identical warrants for senior Hamas leaders.
The move gave the impression that the ICC does not distinguish between Hamas’ radical Islamic ideology, which envisions the eradication of the Jewish State and annihilation of Jews throughout the world, and Israel’s war to oust the terror group from power following the unprecedented October 7th terror onslaught.
But in his first interview after issuing the requests for the warrants, Khan appeared to backpedal, claiming that he did not create a moral equivalence between the two entities.
“I am not saying that Israel with its democracy and its Supreme Court is akin to Hamas, of course not,” Khan told UK outlet the Sunday Times.
“I couldn’t be clearer, Israel has every right to protect its population and to get the hostages back. But nobody has a license to commit war crimes or crimes against humanity. The means define us,” he added.
Khan claimed that Israel had intentionally targeted aid workers and civilians lining up for food, and therefore the warrants were justified. He did not provide any evidence to back up those allegations, which Israel has vigorously denied.
The ICC’s three judge panel is still weighing the warrants, but Khan’s request has triggered a major backlash from the United States.
The Biden administration called the move “outrageous” and emphasized that it did not support the move.