Netanyahu compares ICC Prosecutor to Nazi judges who upheld anti-Jewish laws and "enabled the Nazis to perpetrate the worst crime in history"
“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.”
―Carl Sandburg
According to a transcription provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the announcement by the ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan that he had requested arrest warrants1 for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders in part as follows:2
Notwithstanding the blood libels Mr. Khan has leveled, Israel will continue to wage this war in full compliance with international law. We will continue to take unprecedented measures to get innocent civilians out of harm’s way and to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches those in need in Gaza.
Mr. Khan also sets a dangerous precedent that undermines every democracy’s right to defend itself against terror organizations and aggressors. The ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel and Mr. Khan’s actions will not stop us from waging our just war against Hamas.
But Mr. Khan’s abuse of this authority will turn the ICC into nothing more than a farce.
He’s doing something else. He is callously pouring gasoline on the fires of antisemitism that are raging across the world. Through this incendiary decision, Mr. Khan takes his place among the great antisemites in modern times. He now stands alongside those infamous German judges who donned their robes and upheld laws that denied the Jewish people their most basic rights and enabled the Nazis to perpetrate the worst crime in history.
To compare the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, to the Nazi judges who upheld anti-Jewish laws and “enabled the Nazis to perpetrate the worst crime in history” is beyond the pale, even for a demagogue like Mr. Netanyahu.
Mr. Khan has had a distinguished career. He was named a Queen’s Counsel (QC) in Britain in 2011. He has enormous experience in international criminal law, having worked at most of the international criminal tribunals before being elected Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in 2021 by an ample majority (72) of the states party to the ICC (now 124 countries).
JUDGE FOR YOURSELF: WATCH THE VIDEO OF PROSECUTOR KHAN’S ANNOUNCEMENT, HERE.
What awaits Mr. Netanyahu when he leaves government is a long-delayed corruption trial which could lead to a long prison sentence.
He thus has a personal incentive for continuing the war. It does not appear that a durable ceasefire and peace can be achieved so long as he remains in office.
He is likely to go down in history as Israel’s first (and only) Prime Minister who is an accused war criminal.
See “ICC Prosecutor requests arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant, and Hamas Leaders--with link to full text and video of announcement,” Trenchant Observations, May 20, 2024.
Christine Douglass-Williams, “Netanyahu responds to ICC prosecutor Khan seeking arrest warrants against Israeli leaders,” Jihad Watch, May 20, 2024.