Posted on 05/20/24
| News Source: i24
Following the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan's application for arrest warrant against Israeli and Hamas leadership over war crimes, Israeli politicians and civil society have rejected the equalization of the parties' violations.
Benny Gantz, the war cabinet member, said "placing the leaders of a country that went into battle to protect its citizens, in the same line with bloodthirsty terrorists, is moral blindness and a violation of its duty and ability to protect its citizens. Accepting the prosecutor's position, would be a historical crime that will not go away."
The Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid stressed: "It is a political, moral failure. We can't accept comparison between Netanyahu and [Hamas chief Yahya] Sinwar."
Then Hostage Families' Forum also issued a statement welcoming "the warrants against senior Hamas officials, which constitute further recognition of the crimes against humanity they committed, and are still committing, against the citizens of the State of Israel, including 128 abductees who are still in Hamas basements and suffer daily abuse."
Meanwhile, the organization rejected "the symmetry between Israel's leadership, and the murderers of Hamas, and believes that the way to prove this again in front of the whole world is by immediately entering into negotiations that will release the abducted."
Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated: "We have not seen such a show of hypocrisy and hatred towards Jews as the one by the ICC since the times of Nazi propaganda."