The United States rejects the announcement of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, that he is applying for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as three leaders of Hamas on charges of war crimes, said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller in a briefing.
“There should be no equivalence between Israel and Hamas – none. Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans,” he said.
Furthermore, the ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter, said Spokesperson Miller. “The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. These 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.”
‘In other situations, the prosecutor deferred to national investigations and worked with states to allow them time to investigate. The prosecutor did not afford the same opportunity to Israel in this case, which has ongoing investigations into allegations against its personnel,” noted Mr. Miller.
“There are also deeply troubling process questions. Despite not being a member of the court, Israel was prepared to cooperate with the prosecutor and had made that clear,” said Mr. Miller.
In fact, the prosecutor himself was scheduled to visit Israel to discuss the investigation and hear from the Israeli government. But the prosecutor’s staff didn’t get on their flight around the same time that the prosecutor himself went on television to announce these charges. “These circumstances call into question the legitimacy and credibility of this investigation,” declared spokesperson Miller.
“Finally, this decision does nothing to help – and could jeopardize – ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would get hostages out of Gaza and surge humanitarian assistance in,” warned Mr. Miller:
“Those are the goals that the United States is pursuing and will continue to pursue despite these actions by the ICC prosecutor.”
President Joe Biden called the application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders “outrageous.” He added, “We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
