A spokesman for the German government said on May 23 that Germany would “of course” arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant if the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for the two officials.
Earlier this week, the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, accused Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—Yehya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh—of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip and Israel after the conflict erupted between the two in October 2023.
When asked on May 23 by reporters whether the German government would execute an ICC warrant for Mr. Netanyahu’s and Mr. Gallant’s arrests, Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, responded that it would.
“Of course. Yes, we adhere to the law,“ he said, according to a translation. ”The way you put it so beautifully, this is a hypothetical question, so I’ll take half a step back and say: In principle, we are supporters of the ICC and it will stay that way.”
However, he suggested the German government believes the ICC warrant appears to be problematic and that it doesn’t believe Israel and the leaders of Hamas should be seen with “equivalence.”
After a journalist repeated the question to Mr. Hebestreit about the ICC’s possibly issuing warrants, he said, “I thought I had answered the question through my normative statement ... of course, we abide by the law.”
Following Mr. Hebestreit ’s comments on May 23, an Israeli government spokesman, Avi Hyman, criticized the German government in a Fox News interview.
“I am old enough to remember the German leader coming here days after October 7, and stating the Hamas are the new Nazis,” he said. “They seek a genocide against the Jews. Many in the world need to check their moral compass and be on the right side of history.”
On May 20, Germany’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement that did not repeat the strong condemnations from the U.S. and Israeli governments regarding the potential arrest warrants. It instead noted that the ICC will now have to “decide on the chief prosecutor’s applications for the issuance of arrest warrants,” adding that there is a “false impression of an equation” between Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.
This week, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said that if the ICC does in fact issue the arrest warrants, his country would detain Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant, if possible.
“If they or any Hamas leaders arrive in Norway, according to international law, we are obligated to arrest them. The same principle applies to all European countries, except Turkey,” the foreign minister told TV 2 in Norway.
As for Mr. Nethanyahu, the Israeli leader told CNN this week that U.S. leaders should be concerned about the ICC’s recent announcement.
“Israel is given here a bum rap. I think it’s dangerous. Basically, it’s the first democracy being taken to the dock when it is doing exactly what democracies should be doing in an exemplary way,” he said in the interview. “It endangers all other democracies. Israel is first, but you’re next. Britain is next. Others are next, too.”
A panel of three ICC judges will decide whether to issue the arrest warrants and allow a case to proceed. The judges typically take two months to make such decisions.
Israel is not a member of the court, so even if the arrest warrants are issued, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant do not face any immediate risk of prosecution. But the threat of arrest could make it difficult for Israeli leaders to travel abroad.
Mr. Khan, the prosecutor, said in a statement on May 20 that the two may “bear criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Gaza, including the alleged starvation of civilians, willful killing, persecution, and more.
The ICC added that Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri may be responsible for crimes against humanity, taking hostages as a war crime, torture, various inhumane acts, and more.
The ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute people linked to war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and aggression.
Last year, the ICC issued a warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges linked to the ongoing war in Ukraine. The Kremlin responded by issuing arrest warrants for Mr. Khan and other judges on the international panel.
Other prominent individuals who have been charged by the ICC include Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, who died in November 2011 amid the “Arab Spring” uprisings of the same year, his son Saif Gadhafi, former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, and African warlord Joseph Kony, who has not been caught.
