Israel: Carney must ‘reconsider’ stance on Netanyahu arrest

Prime Minister Carney confirmed he would authorize Netanyahu’s arrest under ICC rules.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel is calling on the Canadian leadership to retract its statement that it would arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visited the country following an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant issued in November 2024.

“We believe that Prime Minister Carney should, of course, reconsider this and welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu, the leader of the only Jewish state and democratic country in the Middle East, to Canada,” Netanyahu’s foreign press spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said in a briefing for international reporters on Tuesday.

The statement came after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed, during a podcast interview last week, that he would authorize Netanyahu’s arrest if he were to set foot in Canadian territory.

Ottawa will “act in accordance with international law and our international legal policy,” Carney said, adding that if Netanyahu “enters Canada, he will be arrested in accordance with the order of the International Criminal Court.”

In September, Canada officially recognized an independent Palestinian state.

Netanyahu’s political adviser, Ophir Falk, sharply criticized Carney for his remarks on the potential arrest, saying he “had hoped that after Canada endorsed [U.S.] President Trump’s Middle East 20-Point Peace Plan [for Gaza], Prime Minister Carney would retract his policy of appeasing terrorism and betraying Canada’s traditional ally.”

Falk added that the Canadian leader should “welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu, the leader of the lone Jewish state and only democracy in the Middle East, to Canada.”

Several countries — including France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Argentina — have publicly stated that they will not honor the ICC warrant and would not arrest Netanyahu if he were to visit there.

U.S. President Donald Trump issued sanctions in January against senior ICC leaders, widely seen as a punitive measure in response to the warrants issued against Netanyahu and then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.