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Netanyahu Slams ICC ‘Joke’ Prosecutor for Meeting With Erdogan, Abbas
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
JNS.org — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday slammed the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor for meeting with the president of Turkey and the head of the Palestinian Authority, whom he described sarcastically as “two great champions of human rights.”
“Under the category of ‘This can only happen at the UN’: ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan met yesterday with two great champions of human rights — Turkish President [Recep] Tayyip Erdogan, renowned for slaughtering Kurdish civilians and jailing journalists, and with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who denies the Holocaust and pays terrorists who murder Jews,” said Netanyahu.
“Rather than issuing arrest warrants for war crimes against Erdogan and Abbas, Khan remains obsessed with casting as war criminals Israel’s democratically elected leaders, who are pursuing a just war with just means against genocidal terrorists. What a joke!” continued the premier.
Israel filed an official petition to the ICC that it drop the prosecutor’s request to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.
“Israel initiated two separate legal proceedings,” the Foreign Ministry statement read.
The first legal case challenges the legal authority of the ICC to file such arrest warrants, the statement said. The second proceeding argues that chief prosecutor Karim Khan violated the court’s constitution and the principle of complementarity by not granting Israel the right to investigate itself the claims made by the ICC.
“No other democracy with an independent and respected judicial system — as exists in the State of Israel — has received such discriminatory treatment from the prosecutor,” the statement went on to say.
“Despite this, Israel remains steadfast in its commitment to the rule of law and justice, and will continue to protect its citizens from the ongoing attacks and atrocities of Hamas and Iran’s other terrorist affiliates, in accordance with international law.”
Earlier in the month, Khan pressed ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber to file the arrest warrants, urging action ahead of Netanyahu’s scheduled address to the United Nations General Assembly on Sep. 27.
Netanyahu excoriated the chief prosecutor, stating that the comparison between Israelis and Hamas terrorists is “pure antisemitism.”
“Unfortunately, we have seen from the beginning that the proceedings in The Hague are politically biased and have no professional legal basis whatsoever,” said Netanyahu.
The ICC has no jurisdiction as Jerusalem is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. But in a legalistic sleight of hand, the court claimed jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, even though no such state exists under international law.
The post Netanyahu Slams ICC ‘Joke’ Prosecutor for Meeting With Erdogan, Abbas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7
Michelle Shalmiev was born in a village in the Caucasian mountains and immigrated to Israel and settled on a kibbutz when she was 14. Her series “Putting Your Stamp on History” […]
The post Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News
Printable obituaries of eight Canadian victims and more of our original coverage.
The post Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen addressing supporters, in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Reuters.
JNS.org – This Oct. 7 will not only be an anniversary of tears, of pure contrition, even if the memory is burning as the people of Israel live. As to how, it wasn’t at all obvious. Our whole history is made of miracles—from the splitting of the sea to escape from the Egyptians to the Inquisition to the pogroms to the thousand other genocidal attacks to which the Jews have been subjected. In every case, the results are always incredible and surprising, especially for how we have emerged active, faithful to our Torah tradition and committed to the return to Jerusalem until we made it happen.
The War of Independence in 1948 was fought by concentration-camp veterans, yet we defeated all the Arab armies, united in hatred, who marched against us. Later, in 1967, 1973 wars were won by a hair’s breadth with miraculous strokes of imagination and leaders who gave birth to ideas that people would have expected. No one would have ever bet a euro, penny or shekel on the idea that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his entire hierarchy could be eliminated, petrifying Iran, especially since we have already reduced its other favorite proxy, Hamas, to pieces. And now we have bombed Iran’s other proxy, the Houthis, some 2,000 kilometers away, destroying the airport from which they receive their weapons and aid from the ayatollahs. The Islamic Republic’s leader, Ali Khamenei, is reportedly hiding underground, the Iraqi and Syrian Shi’ites are waiting to see if they are next, and cities controlled by Tehran are shaking.
As President Joe Biden said, it is a measure of justice, but one that Israel has undertaken in an impossible fashion, defending its citizens amid a thousand prohibitions with determination and without fear. Only in this way can a 76-year-old young state, which has been attacked from all sides, defend itself. The country’s existence is the latest chapter in the history of a people born many millennia ago in the Land of Israel, who are finally back home and defending their state.
The war is certainly not over, as Hezbollah reportedly had 100,000 fighters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he must see this fight through to the end, despite the international pressure to which Israel has been subjected for nearly a year. Israel’s leadership understands that its very existence is at definitive risk if there is no “new Middle East” in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
While previous generations and Israeli leaders hoped that peace agreements would establish peace in the region, today’s leaders know that there is also a need for battle to stop those who, dominated by absurd fanatical and religious beliefs, wish to kill you. (After all, what do the Houthi rebels in Yemen have to do with the Jews and Israel?)
This is the lesson of our time—not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for everyone. The Jewish people are writing a new page in history, one in which the free world must write and fight alongside them, as it is a battle for the survival of Western ideals. Israel has eliminated the two most dangerous terrorist groups in the world—Hamas and Hezbollah—with operations that will set a precedent for decades. And it challenges Iran. I would like to hear the applause, please.
The post The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle first appeared on Algemeiner.com.