ICC’s ruling is ‘unbalanced’: Former Israeli justice minister
Former Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin says the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Gallant and Deif is unbalanced and unfair.
“It’s a very sad day that my prime minister is indicted at the ICC. I didn’t think it would have gotten to this point in history, especially because the gates of hell were opened by Hamas on October 7 and the massacre of Israelis,” Beilin told Al Jazeera.
“To believe that we will find ourselves indicted by the ICC while on the other side, they indicted a dead person – I don’t understand why you indict a dead person. … It’s really unbalanced,” he said, referring to the warrant against Hamas’s Deif, who is believed to have been killed in a July strike on Gaza by the Israeli army.
Two other people for whom the ICC’s top prosecutor had requested arrest warrants were Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh. However, they both have since been killed by Israel.
“I would suggest Gallant, the former defence minister, to consider this option [to present himself at The Hague-based court]. It is not a simple one and maybe the court is unbalanced, but this is an opportunity to present the case of Israel from October 7,” Beilin said.
“The fact that people were killed, and among them not only Hamas warriors but also civilians, breaks my heart, but to portray Israel as the villain of this story while the Palestinians were the victims, it’s not the exact story,” he added.
Israel has killed nearly 45,000 people in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war. It has reduced to rubble large swaths of the enclave and pushed pockets of its 2.3 million population to the cusp of famine. Last week, a UN special committee found that Israel’s warfare in Gaza is consistent with the characteristics of genocide.
Hamas welcomes ICC warrants
The Palestinian group says that the International Criminal Court’s issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister are an “important step towards justice”.
“[It is] an important step towards justice and can lead to redress for the victims in general, but it remains limited and symbolic if it is not supported by all means by all countries around the world,” Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said in a statement.
The court also issued a warrant for the leader of Hamas’s Qassam Bridages, Mohammed Deif, who is believed to have been assassinated by Israel in July.