People hold up a banner as they protest against Israel at the entrance of the International Criminal Court. (File photo)
Tel Aviv, July 3 (RHC)-- Israel has reportedly sent letters to the governments of 25 countries around the world, asking them to spurn the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor's request for arrest warrants against the head of the regime, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Chief prosecutor of the international court Karim Khan announced in May that he has applied for arrest warrants to be issued for Netanyahu and his minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant for war crimes against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that they bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The regime’s foreign minister Israel Katz sent 25 letters to his counterparts around the world, asking them to join Britain and submit a “legal opinion” to the ICC against the prosecutors’ request, Israel's news website Walla reported Tuesday.
Judges at the ICC ruled on June 28 they would allow Britain to make legal arguments in the case against Netanyahu. According to Israel's foreign ministry officials, if those counties or even some of them send such a legal opinion to the ICC, “the judges may be convinced that there is no chance of responding to the Prosecutor General's request."
If the court secures an arrest warrant for Netanyahu or Gallant, the decision would make it extremely difficult for either of them to travel to any of the 124 countries that are party to the court’s laws.
Netanyahu has previously branded Khan a "rogue prosecutor who's out to demonize the one and only Jewish state." President Joe Biden of the United States also took direct aim at the international court, describing the tribunal’s efforts to secure the warrants "outrageous." He also claimed that what happening in the Gaza Strip “is not genocide.”
Israel has killed more than 37,920 Palestinians across Gaza since October.
Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN special rapporteur on the right to health, said Saturday that the only term that can describe Israel’s actions in Gaza is genocide.
