Thursday, May 23, 2024 - France’s Foreign Ministry has come out to support the International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and in Israel.
On Monday, May 20, the ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan said
he had issued arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders—Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed
Deif and Ismail Haniyeh—for crimes committed in Israel and Gaza on 7 October
2023 and after, including “extermination”, “taking hostages” and “Rape and
other acts of sexual violence”.
Khan also issued warrants for Israeli Prime Minister
Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes in Gaza following Hamas’
7 October attack, including “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare”,
“intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population” and
“extermination and/or murder”.
The arrest warrant drew equivalence between the militant
group and an elected government with close ties to the US and West.
But France has now broken from its allies to support the
ICC's arrest warrants against Israel.
“France supports the
International Criminal Court, its independence, and its fight against impunity
in all situations,” the Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement published Monday
night, following the ICC’s announcement.
The French Foreign Ministry
said it “has condemned, as of 7 October, the anti-Semitic massacres perpetuated
by Hamas. This terrorist group claimed the barbaric attacks directed at
civilians, accompanied by acts of torture and sexual violence that they themselves
documented”.
On Israel, “France has been
raising the alarm for many months on the imperative for the strict respect of
international humanitarian law, notably on the unacceptable nature of civilian
losses in the Gaza strip and an insufficient humanitarian access.”
France's support for the ICC warrant came after the United
States objected to the ICC’s putting Israel and Hamas in the same warrant.
US President Joe Biden called the move “outrageous”, saying
there was “no equivalence” between Israel and Hamas.
Italy's foreign minister agreed that it was was
"unacceptable" to equate the Israeli democratic government with
Hamas.
Netanyahu said Khan has created a "twisted and false
moral equivalence" between Israel and Hamas, calling the warrants "a
moral outrage of historic proportions".
In a video released by his office Tuesday, Netanyahu called
Khan ”one of the "great anti-Semites in modern times," like the
judges in Nazi Germany who denied Jews basic rights and enabled the Holocaust,
and said the decision to issue the warrants was "callously pouring
gasoline on the fires of anti-Semitism that are raging around the world”.
A Hamas representative denounced the arrest warrants against
its leaders, saying it was "equating the victim with the
executioner", and demanded the withdrawal of the request.
In his warrant, Khan does not make any direct comparisons
between Israel and Hamas, except to say they have both committed crimes against
humanity.
A panel of three judges will determine whether or not to
issue the arrest warrants after considering the prosecutor’s evidence.
If the warrants are issued, the court—which includes nearly
all countries of the European Union could be put in a diplomatically difficult
position.
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