Internet calls ICC 'a Nazi court' as Joe Biden slams body for issuing Benjamin Netanyahu's arrest warrant

WASHINGTON, DC: President Joe Biden has criticized the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, calling it as "outrageous."

Earlier on Monday, May 20, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan declared that his office has "reasonable grounds" to believe Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas leaders have committed "war crimes and crimes against humanity" since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7 last year. 

What did Joe Biden say in his statement to ICC?

"The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous," Biden said in a statement issued Monday afternoon, May 20. "And let me be clear: whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence – none – between Israel and Hamas," Biden added. "We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security," the president continued.

Antony Blinken also took a jab at ICC's announcement 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also took aim at the ICC’s announcement, saying in a separate statement on Monday, May 20, that the State Department rejects the "[p]rosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas," calling it "shameful."

"The United States has been clear since well before the current conflict that the ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter. The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction," Blinken argued, adding "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." 

Blinken noted that in other matters, "the Prosecutor deferred to national investigations and worked with states to allow them time to investigate" and "did not afford the same opportunity to Israel, which has ongoing investigations into allegations against its personnel."

"There are also deeply troubling process questions. Despite not being a member of the court, Israel was prepared to cooperate with the Prosecutor. In fact, the Prosecutor himself was scheduled to visit Israel as early as next week to discuss the investigation and hear from the Israeli Government," Blinken continued, as per Fox News.

"The Prosecutor’s staff was supposed to land in Israel today to coordinate the visit. Israel was informed that they did not board their flight around the same time that the Prosecutor went on cable television to announce the charges. These and other circumstances call into question the legitimacy and credibility of this investigation," he added. 

The decision also "does nothing to help, and could jeopardize, ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would get hostages out and surge humanitarian assistance in, which are the goals the United States continues to pursue relentlessly," Blinken said.

Benjamin Netanyahu is not the first top politician to be targeted by the ICC

The warrants against the Israeli politicians mark the first time the ICC has targeted the top leader of a close ally of the United States.

However, the Israeli prime minister now joins the Russian President Vladimir Putin, for whom the ICC issued an arrest warrant over Moscow’s war on Ukraine and the Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi who was facing an arrest warrant from the ICC for alleged crimes against humanity at the time of his capture and killing in October 2011.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan breaks silence after making the controversial move

Khan said the ICC’s prosecution team is also seeking warrants for Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as two other top Hamas leaders, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Al Qassem Brigades who is better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ political leader.

“The world was shocked on the 7th of October when people were ripped from their bedrooms, from their homes, from the different kibbutzim in Israel,” Khan told the CNN adding that “people have suffered enormously.”

Khan told the outlet that his team has a “variety of evidence” to support the application for arrest warrants against Sinwar, Haniyeh and al-Masri, including authenticated video footage and photographs from the attacks as well as evidence from eyewitnesses and survivors.

Khan said Israel had “every right and indeed an obligation to get hostages back, but you must do so by complying with the law.”

Hamas responds to Karim Khan's announcement

Responding to the announcement by Khan, Hamas said in a statement that it “strongly condemns the attempts of the ICC Prosecutor to equate victims with aggressors by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders without legal basis.”

“Hamas calls on the ICC Prosecutor to issue arrest warrants against all war criminals among the occupation leaders, officers, and soldiers who participated in crimes against the Palestinian people, and demands the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against Palestinian resistance leaders,” the group added.

Benjamin Netanyahu terms the decision 'a political outrage'

Netanyahu called the decision “a political outrage.” “They will not deter us and we will continue in the war until the hostages are released and Hamas is destroyed,” he said at a meeting of the parliamentary group of his Likud party.

Benny Gantz, a member Israel’s war cabinet, criticized Khan’s decision immediately after it was announced, saying that Israel was fighting “with one of the strictest moral codes in history, while complying with international law and boasting a robust independent judiciary.”

“Drawing parallels between the leaders of a democratic country determined to defend itself from despicable terror to leaders of a blood-thirsty terror organisation is a deep distortion of justice and blatant moral bankruptcy,” he said, adding that the decision by the prosecutors “is in itself a crime of historic proportion to be remembered for generation.”

The leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, said the application for the arrest warrents was “a complete moral failure.” “We cannot accept the outrageous comparison between Netanyahu and Sinwar … We will not remain silent,” he said. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog called it “beyond outrageous.”

Internet lambasts ICC following their questionable decision

Netizens were also disappointed after the ICC issued arrest warrants on the Israeli prime minister. One user tweeted, "This is going to be a mess. The ICC's decisions are usually contentious, but this one is on another level. Biden's reaction isn't surprising though, the US has always had a complicated relationship with the ICC. I'm curious to see how this plays." 

Another said, "Biden's classic move. Any court should not abide by law or reality but should rule in favor of Biden's 'friends' and against Biden's 'enemies'." "It is a Nazi court," echoed one. "Joe Slams ICC Arrest Warrant with his fingers crossed," added a fourth user. "Never in my life did I think arrogant hooliganism could reach such blatant levels in broad daylight," said one user. 

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