Journalism of Courage
Israel has urged Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to drop his pledge to honour the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to the country.
The Israeli response came after the Canadian PM said Netanyahu, who is facing an ICC arrest warrant, could be arrested in his country.
The ICC issued arrest warrants last year for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.
The then Canadian PM, Justin Trudeau, had said his country would “abide” by the arrest warrant issued against Netanyahu. “We stand up for international law, and we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts,” Trudeau had said.
Last week, Carney was asked in an interview with Bloomberg if he would fulfil the commitment of Trudeau to arrest Netanyahu if he came to Canada, to which he replied “yes”.
However, on Tuesday, Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said Carney should reconsider his decision.
“We believe that Prime Minister Carney should, of course, reconsider this and welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu, the leader of the only Jewish state and democratic country in the Middle East, to Canada.”
Bedrosian said Canada’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state was a “prize for terrorism” and it had “only poured fuel on an antisemitic fire in Canada”.
It should be noted that several other countries, mostly in Europe, have promised to arrest Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant. This includes the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Belgium.
Though all 124 ICC members are legally obligated to arrest and surrender individuals with active warrants to the court if they enter their territory, some, including Hungary, Germany, France, the UK, and Italy, have indicated that they may not arrest him.
The possibility of him getting arrested had forced Netanyahu to take a much longer route, by skipping the skies of several European countries, in September when he travelled to New York for the UN General Assembly.
