Opposition Leader Yair Lapid joined the growing chorus of criticism of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan today (Monday), when Khan decided to file for warrants of arrest against not only the leaders of Hamas but also Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant for alleged war crimes.
In a post on X, Lapid called the comparison of the two "outrageous" and the warrants themselves a "complete moral failure."
Prime Minister Netanyahu also issued a statement today condemning the "outrageous" decision of ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan to file for warrants against him and Defense Minister Gallant for alleged war crimes:
In response to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan's decision to file for warrants against Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, 106 Knesset Members signed a petition condemning the decision outright.
Members of the Labor and Arab parties refused to sign, with Labor officially calling it a "tool" and a "campaign" meant to personally strengthen Netanyahu rather than protect the country.
The petition reads:
The State of Israel is in the midst of a just war against a criminal terrorist organization.
The IDF is the most moral army in the world.
Our soldiers are fighting incomparably bravely and morally, in accordance with international law, as no other army in the world has done.
The outrageous comparison of the prosecutor in the Hague between the leaders of Israel and the heads of the Hamas terrorist organization is a historic and unforgivable crime and a clear expression of antisemitism.
The placing of the State of Israel, a democracy espousing human rights and fighting for its life, in the same ranks as a murderous terror organization which kidnapped, slaughtered, burned and raped its citizens and acts against its existence - is a distortion without equal.
We reject it with disgust.
80 years after the Holocaust, no-one will tie the hands of the state of the Jews from defending itself.
Signed,
