President Joe Biden on Monday denounced the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor’s decision to ask for arrest warrants against both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, calling the move a false equivalence equating the militant group’s terrorist tactics with Israeli self-defense.
Earlier in the day, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan KC put out a statement calling for arrest warrants to issue for Mr Netanyahu, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant, Mr Yahya Sinwar, Hamas military chief Mohammed al-Masri and Hamas political boss Ismail Haniyeh.
Mr Khan said the charges against the Israeli leaders include “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare … intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population … wilfully causing great suffering … persecution as a crime against humanity … [and] extermination and/or murder.”
The announcement marked the first time in the court’s history that a prosecutor has sought to make a sitting head of state and a sitting defense minister of a country with support from western democracies such as the US and UK subject to ICC jurisdiction.
In a statement, Mr Biden did not address the matter of the Hamas leaders, but called the application for arrest warrants against Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz “outrageous”.
“Let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas,” Mr Biden said.
The American president added that the US “will always stand with Israel against threats to its security”.
Neither the US nor Israel recognise the court and have not signed on to the treaty outlining its’ powers and responsibilities. But if Mr Khan is successful in obtaining warrants for Mr Netanyahu or Mr Gantz, it would place the two Israeli leaders in a category with Russian president Vladimir Putin, who is currently subject to an ICC arrest warrant against him for ordering Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Both would be barred from travelling to any of the 124 countries that are signatories to the ICC, as authorities there would be obliged to arrest them and deliver them to The Hague for prosecuction.
