By Abiola Olawale
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has expressed his disapproval of the International Criminal Court’s recent decision to issue arrest warrants against him and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Netanyahu, spoke during a press conference, condemning the court’s act, characterizing the decision of ICC as a “modern-day Dreyfus trial.” Referring to the infamous 1894 trial of French Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was wrongly convicted of treason, the Israeli Prime Minister said he had also been falsely accused.
He described the decision of the ICC as “anti-Semitism”, vowing that his government won’t be deterred from continuing its war against Hamas in Gaza.
The New Diplomat reports that the ICC last week Thursday issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant, accusing both men of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the ongoing war in Gaza.
The court’s charges include allegations of starvation, murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
It would be recalled that the ongoing war escalated after Hamas launched a cross-border attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
More than 44,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, have been reportedly killed, and Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been left largely displaced, with many depending on humanitarian aid.
But according to Netanyahu, Israel has been able to supply Gaza with 700,000 tons of food to feed the people of Gaza and also facilitated the vaccination of 97% of the people of Gaza against polio.
He said: “The anti-Semitic decision of the International Court in the Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way.
“130 years ago, the French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of treason by a biased French court. In response to these false accusations, the great French writer, Emile Zola wrote his monumental essay. He accused the French court of antisemitic lies against an innocent officer who was later exonerated of all guilt.
“Now an International Court in the Hague, also headed by a French judge, is repeating this outrageous offence. It is falsely accusing me, the democratically elected prime minister of the State of Israel and Israel’s former defence minister, Yoav Galant, of deliberately targeting civilians.
“This, when we do everything in our power to avoid civilian casualties, we issue millions of text messages, phone calls, leaflets to the citizens of Gaza to get them out of harm’s way, while the Hamas terrorists do everything in their power to keep them in harm’s way, including shooting them, using them as human shields.
“The Court in the Hague accuses us of a deliberate policy of starvation. This month, we’ve supplied Gaza with 700,000 tons of food to feed the people of Gaza. That’s 3200 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza. And these supplies are routinely looted by Hamas terrorists, who deprive their people of much-needed food.
“Yet just in the last few weeks, Israel facilitated the vaccination of 97% of the people of Gaza against polio. This doesn’t prevent the court from accusing us of genocide.
“What in God’s name are they talking about in The Hague? The truth is simple, no, war is more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza, after Hamas attacked us unprovoked, launched the launching the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
