Biden criticizes ICC prosecutor’s request for Netanyahu arrest warrant
US president sides with Israeli PM as he calls Karim Khan’s pursuit of warrants for Netanyahu along with Hamas leaders ‘outrageous’
Joe Biden has attacked as “outrageous” an application by the international criminal court for warrants seeking the arrest of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, along with senior members of Hamas, for actions carried out in Gaza.
The US president sided unambiguously with Israel after the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced he was pursuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister. Khan is also pursuing the arrests of three leading Hamas figures, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri – better known as Mohammed Deif – and Ismail Haniyeh over Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October last year.
The prosecutor’s announcement prompted Biden’s most outspoken remarks in Israel’s support in months, with the president accusing the ICC of drawing a false moral equivalence between the country and Hamas, a militant Islamist group that has run Gaza since 2006.
“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” Biden said in the statement. “And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
Biden’s comments were echoed by Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, who said the US “fundamentally rejects” the decision to seek the arrests of Israeli officials and warned that it could jeopardise efforts to reach a ceasefire.
He also accused the ICC of overstepping its authority.
“The United States has been clear since well before the current conflict that ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter,” Blinken said. “The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed.”
The ICC’s move follows a separate case currently being heard by a different court, the international court of justice, of accusations – brought by South Africa – that Israel is committing genocide in its response to last October’s attack. Israel strenuously denies the allegation.
The Biden administration’s chorus of support for Israel follows weeks of tensions between the two allies over Israeli plans for an offensive against the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are believed to be seeking shelter.
Biden said this month that he would withhold US weapons from Israel if Netanyahu ordered a major invasion of the city.
More than 35,000 Palestinians – the majority of them said to be women and children – have been killed since Israel launched its military offensive in response to last October’s murderous Hamas assault, when 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed and another 250 were taken hostage.
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