“Biased” ICC warrants lack “any factual or legal basis,” Jerusalem says in statement.
By World Israel News Staff
Israel will formally appeal the ICC warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, adding that Jerusalem will partner with Washington to take punitive measures against the Hague.
“The State of Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, and the legitimacy of the arrest warrants that were issued,” read a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Israel’s appeal notice exposes in detail just how absurd the issuance of arrest warrants was and how it lacks any factual or legal basis.”
Addressing the charges levied against Netanyahu and Gallant, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, the statement denied those allegations and stressed that Israel is not a member state of the ICC.
The statement warned that should the ICC move forward with the warrants, such a move would “underline to Israel’s friends in the U.S. and the world how biased the International Criminal Court is against Israel.”
Netanyahu’s office added that the premier is contact with senior Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter.
Graham, Netanyahu’s office said, had updated the prime minister regarding “the efforts that he is advancing in the US Congress against the ICC and countries that have co-operated with it”.
Last week, President Joe Biden called the ICC warrants “outrageous.”
Noting that an arrest warrant was also issued against slain Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, Biden added that “whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
When the ICC decision was made public last week, Netanyahu called the warrants “an antisemitic step that has one goal – to deter me, to deter us from having our natural right to defend ourselves against enemies who try to destroy us.”
American attorney Alan Dershowitz recently said he is assembling a “legal dream team” to defend Israel in the Hague.