Israel reacted with fury to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Within
minutes of the decision being announced, lawmakers from across the
political spectrum rallied around the premier and condemned the
three-judge panel.
Israelis of all stripes, the media included, dismissed the charges as "absurd" and "antisemitic," and attempted to characterise the ICC as a biased, politicised body.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the warrants, which also targeted Hamas’ military leader Mohammed Deif, "outrageous."
He claimed the warrants had turned "universal justice into a universal laughing stock."
Opposition
leader, Yair Lapid, called them a "reward for terrorism" and claimed
Israel's brutal invasion of Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000
Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, was a war aimed
at defending Israel "against terrorist organisations that attacked,
murdered and raped our citizens."
Benny Gantz, a former
member of Netanyahu's war cabinet, described the decision as a
"shameful stain of historic proportions that will never be forgotten."
Meanwhile, former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said the "rotten" ICC had confused "good with evil."
Israelis unite against the ICC
Israel's
attempts to silence its critics with claims of antisemitism has become
an all too common feature since the 7 October attacks on southern
Israel.
So it wasn't a shock that Netanyahu, the country's long serving leader, also referred to this historic decision as antisemitic.
The
premier, who has a trial date on corruption charges set for early
December, has branded near enough every international body antisemitic,
including the UN - which he referred to in September as an "antisemitic swamp."
On Thursday, he called the warrants "an antisemitic decision… equivalent to the modern Dreyfus trial."
The
trial in 1894 of Alfred Dreyfus, a French artillery captain of Jewish
descent, wrongfully convicted for giving French military secrets to the
Germans, is one of the most infamous cases of European antisemitism.
The warrants were also too much, even for Israeli media.
Dafna
Liel, the political correspondent for Channel 12, Israel's leading news
channel, wrote that it was a fatal blow to Israel and that "this is the
first time that such a step has been taken against the leaders of a
democratic country."
Liel's colleague at Channel 12
News, Keren Bezalel, a correspondent for foreign affairs, wrote: "This
is a total collapse of the Israeli case before the International
Criminal Court in The Hague."
These fears are not
groundless. Just below the public furore lies a genuine fear about the
effect the ICC warrants would have on anyone who takes part in the war
on Gaza.
Israel Hayom reported that Israeli leaders
fear the court could issue arrest warrants against soldiers and other
senior security officials accused of committing war crimes in Gaza.
And just a day before the decision was announced, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese told my colleague Sondos Asem that the ICC needed to do more and issue additional arrest warrants.
The attorney general
Following
the announcement, Israel's Attorney General, Gali Baharav-Miara,
attempted to downplay the horror's we're all seeing in Gaza and sought
to criticise the ICC's principal function.
"The
International Criminal Court, which was designed to deal with the most
serious atrocities, has today sinned against the historic role it was
supposed to play," Baharav-Miara, said.
It's worth
noting that Baharav-Miara is the same attorney general who the
anti-Netanyahu camp sought to characterise as a superhero - someone who
fought fearlessly to preserve Israeli democracy.
But like so many others, she only seeks to advance the rights of a certain group and class of people.
Just
today, Haaretz reported that Baharav-Miara had decided against
investigating public figures for inciting violence against the
Palestinians.
Such is the delusion amongst Israel's
political leaders that in the months leading up to the decision, no one
really bothered to examine the arguments the ICC had laid out.
The
warrants were first requested by the ICC chief prosecutor, Karim Khan,
in May after a long investigation in which Israel’s leaders did not
cooperate.
At the time, Netanyahu could have taken the
lead and established an independent state commission of inquiry – but
he opposed the idea - maybe because such a process would examine his
role in the disastrous security failures preceding the 7 October attacks
on southern Israel.
So, the ICC, despite countless
external pressures from Israel’s western backers continued with its
impartial investigation and unanimously agreed that Netanyahu and
Gallant were "co-perpetrators for committing the war crime of starvation
as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder,
persecution, and other inhumane acts."
The judges also
"found reasonable grounds to believe that they bear criminal
responsibility … for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack
against the civilian population."
The charges reinforce
the work of the International Court of Justice, which has found that it
is "plausible" that Israel has committed acts in Gaza that violate the
Genocide Convention.
Will Israel's backers accept the truth?
Whilst
Netanyahu is unlikely to be in handcuffs any time soon, the warrants
have made it clear that both he and Gallant, who have terrorised the
people of Gaza with air strikes and starvation, bear criminal
responsibility as co-perpetrators.
So will this legal reckoning usher in changes in Israel?
A Haaretz newspaper
editorial said: "One might have hoped the ICC’s announcement would
raise pointed questions in Israel about the morality of the ongoing war
in Gaza. Unfortunately, both the government and public opinion, with the
support of most of the media, are refusing to listen."
What about Israel's western backers? Will they now accept the truth - that a genocide is taking place is Gaza?
They
too now have a choice, either continue calling the warrants outrageous,
or come to their senses and see that there is no dodging responsibility
for the brutalities that have been committed in Gaza
Whether
or not Netanyahu or Gallant are ever surrendered to a court in The
Hague, there is no denying that the tide of international opinion is
turning.
Israel's days of total immunity for its actions are coming to an end.