WASHINGTON—A swift and bipartisan condemnation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) came down from the Biden administration and members of Congress after one of the group’s prosecutors announced that he had issued a request for arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and against Hamas leaders.
"We reject the ICC's application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders," President Biden said. "Whatever these warrants may imply. There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. And it's clear Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civilian protection."
Echoing President Biden’s reproach against the arrest warrants were Jewish-American lawmakers, Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Jared Moskowitz.
Rep. Wasserman Schultz, who has arguably been one of the loudest voices of support for Israel in the House of Representatives, called the ICC’s move to seek warrants against Israeli officials as being “outrageous, unacceptable,” and “a baseless comparison” between the terror group Hamas and Israel.
“Its outrageous, unacceptable, a baseless comparison between Hamas, which is a terrorist organization that slaughtered 1,200 jews engaged in gender-based sexual violence, kidnapped 250 hostages and still holds on to 128, and certainly deserves to be investigated and arrest warrants being made for their leadership for perpetrating the worst killings since the Holocaust,” said Rep. Wasserman Schultz in an interview with The Floridian.
Wasserman Schultz continued, calling the ICC illegitimate for pursuing arrest warrents against Israel for defending its right to defend itself.
“But Israel is a sovereign nation that was defending themselves against the unprovoked onslaught. The ICC forfeits any legitimacy if they are pursuing arrest warrants against a sovereign nation defending its people. its revolting, its disgusting, incomparable,” added Wasserman Schultz.
Rep. Moskowitz also agreed that the warrants were “outrageous” and completely “manufactured to try to delegitimize the state of Israel,” and questioned why the ICC did not an issue arrest warrant for Syrian President Assad after he killed 300,000 civilians.
“ There is no genocide going on in Gaza, that’s a complete lie manufactured to try to delegitimize the state of Israel. Assad in Syria killed 300,000 people , used chemical weapons, killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, the ICC never issued any warrants , so what’s different here,” asked Rep. Moskowitz.
“When they go to serve the warrant on Sinwar (Hamas leader), if they can tell us where he is, we can end the war,” snarked Moskowitz.
Then ICC came to the conclusion of requesting arrest warrants against Israel after Amal Clooney advised prosecutors to do so.
The ICC has accused Hamas of a range of crimes, including hostage-taking, murder and crimes of sexual violence. Israel has also committed crimes, including "starvation as a method of warfare, murder, persecution and extermination," said Clooney, a human rights attorney.
