International court prosecutor's warrant requests for Israeli and Hamas leaders ignite fierce debate
Prosecutor Karim Khan has broken new ground with his stunning announcement that he had requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and the leaders of Hamas on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The stunning announcement that the International Criminal Court is considering issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity has ignited a fierce debate about the court's future as an independent arbiter.
The request by Prosecutor Karim Khan against the leader of a nation spawned by the horrors of the Holocaust also comes as the United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, is investigating whether Israel has committed genocide during its seven-month war against Hamas in Gaza.
Although human rights activists generally welcomed Khan's move on Monday, which also included requests to arrest Israel's defense minister and three Hamas leaders, Netanyahu told ABC News that Khan’s decision turned the ICC into a “pariah institution.”
In Washington, where Senate Republicans have threatened sanctions against ICC staff, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Hague-based court doesn't have jurisdiction and that it was “extremely wrongheaded” for the prosecutor to equate the Israeli officials with the Hamas leaders he's seeking to indict.
