Israeli government spokesperson Tal Heinrich said Tuesday that Israel was calling “upon the nations of the civilized, free world” to oppose the International Criminal Court (ICC) effort to seek warrants for Israeli leaders over the war in Gaza.
As Breitbart News reported, ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced Monday that he is seeking warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders.
“This is a travesty of justice,” Heinrich said, quoting Netanyahu’s reaction. “It makes a mockery of international law. … It’s a vicious smear that is meant to do one thing and one thing alone: prevent Israel from exercising its self-defense … in a war that we didn’t start and didn’t want.”
She added: “There is no power in the world that will prevent us from bringing back our hostages and toppling the Hamas regime. … There is no power in the world that will push us to commit public suicide and stop defending ourselves, just to satisfy antisemites.”
Heinrich noted that Israel is “100% compliant” with international humanitarian law and the laws of armed conflict. “Israel does not target civilians in Gaza. Our fight is with Hamas.”
She also blasted what she called a “false, sick equivalence” between Israeli leaders and Hamas leaders — between those (Hamas) who use “their own children as shields,” and those (Israel) who do everything to protect children on both sides.
She also blasted the ICC’s claim that Israel was “causing starvation as a method of war.” On the contrary, she noted, “80% more food is entering Gaza every day now than before October 7. … There is no policy of denying food from the population. … There is no starvation in Gaza. There is a narrative of starvation, pushed by Israel’s enemies.
The ICC warrants would enable terrorists, she said. “It’s a continuation of a reality in which Israelis can get slaughtered, and raped, and burned.”
The warrants, she said, were “playing right into Hamas’s strategy.”
And she urged the free world to respond.
“We call upon the nations of the civilized, free world … Make sure the ICC understands where you stand.”
Heinrich added that the “jurisdiction of the ICC does not apply to us,” since Israel is not a signatory to the ICC’s enabling Rome Statute.
Asked by Breitbart News whether Israel would ask President Joe Biden to restore President Donald Trump’s sanctions against the ICC, which Biden revoked upon taking office, Heinrich said: “We told our American counterparts exactly what we want to see.” She added that Netanyahu would address that issue in upcoming interviews.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
