The International Criminal Court (ICC) this week made the first truly historic move since its establishment in 2002, with its chief prosecutor recommending arrest warrants against two top Israeli officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and three prominent Hamas leaders.
As expected, both sides have denounced this ICC action in the strongest possible language. Because of western media bias, the angry reactions from Israel and its allies have dominated the news cycle, while the official statement from Hamas has been largely ignored.
While each side chose a similar line of argument, there is a 180-degree difference in their substantive outlooks.
Israel’s most fundamental objection to the prosecutor’s action is the supposed equivalence drawn between Hamas, which perpetrated the barbarous attack of 7 October, and the democratically elected government of Israel, which says it acted to defend itself and restore the security of its population.
Hamas and its supporters are also appalled at the equivalence implied by the call for arrest warrants, which “equate[s] the victim with the executioner” in the context of an oppressive Israeli occupation that affirms Palestinian legal rights of resistance, including recourse to armed struggle. …..more
