Today the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
This will be a concerning development for many, and several have rushed to call this decision anti-Israel or even antisemitic. But it’s important to note Israel’s government considers itself to be a democracy.
This is in contrast to Hamas, whose leadership has shown no regard for human rights – of its own citizens or Israelis. But Hamas is a terrorist organisation, and this is not the standard any state should compare itself to.
The independence of the judiciary is a basic tenet of democracy as is upholding human rights, and all those that believe in democratic principles must respect international law even if they do not agree with the outcome of a legal process.
This week, Netanyahu has put forward a law that would prevent an independent investigation, even within Israel, into the events leading to October 7th and the failure of those in power. The Israeli government and Hamas had multiple opportunities to work with the international community to end this war.
We stand behind Israeli civil society organisations and leaders who today are clear that Netanyahu must take responsibility for his failure to negotiate an end to the war and the release of Israeli hostages and believe that his refusal to uphold the values of democracy and to work towards long term negotiated resolutions is what has led this outcome.
We should focus our energy and attention on the fact that we are approaching 14 months of war, tens of thousands of lives lost and 101 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.