RSS
‘Appalled’: Jewish Organizations Around the World React to ICC Arrest Warrants Against Israelis Over Gaza
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
Jewish organizations around the world reacted on Thursday to the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief, Yoav Gallant.
The court announced that it issued the warrants for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas for the past year. An arrest warrant was also put out for Hamas terror leader Ibrahim al-Masri, better known as Mohammed Deif.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) said it was “appalled” at the ruling against the two Israeli leaders. “This reckless, irresponsible decision is a gross distortion of international law that harms the court’s credibility, completely undermines its core mandate, and emboldens enemies of democracy around the world,” it wrote in a statement.
AJC continued, “Rather than acknowledging the reality that Israel’s military actions in Gaza are solely focused on defeating the internationally recognized terror organization Hamas, securing the safe return of the 101 hostages still held by the terror group, and protecting Israelis from further attack, the court embraced the false claims that Israel is acting with malicious intent toward Palestinians, restricting humanitarian aid as a tool of punishment, and deliberately attacking and harming civilians.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called the ICC’s decision a “shameful and wholly political action on the part of the court.”
“The ICC’s rationale is rooted in unsubstantiated and specious claims, which run counter to the realities on the ground in Gaza, and send a disturbing message equating Israel’s war of self-defense with Hamas’s terrorism,” the ADL added. “The court has ignored its own principles and practices in service of a political ruling. The court’s moral lapse only serves to further embolden extremists and incite violence against Jews and Israel. We urge global leaders to unequivocally reject the ICC’s wrong and dangerous decision.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) called on the US Congress to impose sanctions on the ICC for its ruling.
“The ICC has reached a new low in its morally bankrupt and legally baseless attacks against the Jewish state,” it wrote. “Congress must now act to sanction ICC officials.”
AIPAC, the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the US, argued that “Israel is our democratic ally fighting on the front lines against our shared enemies” and that “in the past, the ICC has also targeted the US, and today’s decision could set a precedent to be employed against America and other democratic countries.”
Internationally, Jewish organizations also lambasted the ICC’s decision.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany wrote on X that the warrants were an “absurdity.”
“Israel is defending itself against Islamist terror in Gaza and Lebanon after the Hamas massacre on October 7, 2023,” the group added. “The semantic dualism alone of putting Israel on a par with Hamas borders on impudence and a completely misguided understanding of the role of an international criminal court as a result of anti-Israel propaganda.”
The president of the European Jewish Congress, Ariel Muzicant, said in a statement that “in issuing for the first time arrest warrants for leaders of a democratic country together with one for a dead terrorist [Deif], the ICC has shown itself to be no longer fit for purpose.”
Muzicant continued, “It is beyond shocking that the leaders of a democratic state defending its own citizens can be made into international fugitives after a brutal invasion with a terror organization that uses rape, murder, and kidnap as its principal tools of war.” He pointed out that “just this very week, the UN’s own agencies noted that Hamas have been looting dozens of aid trucks for their own population.”
The World Jewish Congress also made a statement, writing “The ICC’s decision not only undermines the pursuit of peace but also disregards the recognized right of a nation to act in self defense when facing the actions of Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization responsible for the attempted annihilation of Israel’s civilians.”
Argentina’s umbrella Jewish organization, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), said in a statement that the warrants “constitute a direct attack on the right of the State of Israel and all nations to defend themselves against the most brutal terrorism.”
“With this order, issued against leaders of a democratic country, the ICC has definitively chosen to position itself on the side of terror, criminalizing and internationally isolating the State of Israel in the context in which this country is fighting an existential war in its defense and in that of the free world,” DAIA continued. “It is imperative, once again, to remember the murders, rapes, and kidnappings of Oct. 7, 2023 against the Israeli population, which is why the representative entity of the Argentine Jewish community demands the immediate return to their homes of the 101 kidnapped people at the hands of Hamas terrorism.”
Countries that are party to the Statute of the International Criminal Court are now obliged to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they enter their territory. The US is not such a country, as it withdrew from the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC. The ICC also has no jurisdiction over Israel as it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute. However, the ICC has asserted jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, despite no such state being recognized under international law.
The post ‘Appalled’: Jewish Organizations Around the World React to ICC Arrest Warrants Against Israelis Over Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week
Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism
A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.
The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.
“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.
“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”
Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.
This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.
During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.
As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.
No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.
“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.
“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.
“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.
Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.
RSS
Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution
German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”
“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.
Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.
The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.
Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.
RSS
UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.
The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.