23/11/2024
Statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Thursday, 21 November 2024):
"The antisemitic decision of the international court in The Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way.
One hundred and thirty years ago, the French Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of treason by a biased French court.
In response of these false accusations, the great French writer Émile Zola wrote his monumental essay, J’Accuse.
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 offense.
It is falsely accusing me, the democratically elected prime minister of the State of Israel and Israel’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant, 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, when we have supplied Gaza with 700,000 tons of food to feed the people of Gaza. That’s 3,200 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 percent of the people of Gaza against polio. This doesn’t prevent the court of accusing us of genocide.
What in G-d’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, launching the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
The decision to issue an arrest warrant against me, the democratically elected prime minister of the State of Israel, and our former defense minister was made by a rogue prosecutor who is trying to extricate himself from sexual harassment charges, and by biased judges who are motivated by antisemitic sentiments against the one and only Jewish state.
These judges did nothing, they did nothing, against the real war crimes committed against the millions who have been murdered or uprooted by the dictatorships in Iran, Syria and Yemen.
Instead, they falsely accuse the one democracy in the Middle East, Israel, thereby imperiling the right of all democracies to defend themselves against murderous terrorists and tyrants.
Nor did the court do anything against the Hamas terrorists who r***d our women, beheaded our men, burned babies alive in front of their parents and kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children to the underground dungeons of Gaza. They’re still holding 101 hostages, citizens of many lands, including the United States.
Come to think of it, the court did issue one arrest warrant against Hamas.
Now hear this. They issued an arrest warrant against the co**se of the Hamas arch-terrorist, Muhammad Deif. His co**se.
What an absurdity.
No biased anti-Israel decision in The Hague will prevent the State of Israel from defending its citizens.
I want to thank our many friends around the world, especially those in the United States, who have condemned this outrage and who have said this decision will have severe consequences for the ICC and those who cooperate with its decision.
Israel does not, Israel will not recognize the validity of this decision. We will continue to do everything we must do to defend our citizens and to defend our state against Iran’s axis of terror. Iran and its terrorist proxies, which include Hamas, Hezbollah the Houthis and others. Our enemies are your enemies, and our victory will be your victory, the victory of civilization over barbarism and tyranny."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "The antisemitic decision of the international court in The Hague is a modern Dreyfus trial, and it will end the same way....
