Biden rejects International Criminal Court’s claims of Israel committing genocide

President Joe Biden has sharply criticized a request from an International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor for an arrest warrant for several Israeli leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaking from the Rose Garden, Biden said Israel is not committing genocide and dismissed the ICC’s comparison of Israeli defensive actions to Hamas’ atrocities.

The U.S. president firmly supported Israel after the ICC’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced his intent to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister. Khan is also seeking to arrest three prominent Hamas figures — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri (commonly known as Mohammed Deif) and Ismail Haniyeh — in connection with Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7 of 2023.

“Let me be clear, we reject the ICC application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders,” Biden stated. “Whatever these words may imply, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. But let me be clear, contrary to allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice, what’s happening is not genocide. We reject that.”   

The ICC’s top prosecutor has called for global arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Hamas leaders on charges of crimes against humanity, accusing Israel of deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza. Netanyahu has denied the charges, arguing that the prosecutor is wrongly equating Israel with Hamas.

Biden’s remarks were supported by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who stated that the U.S. “fundamentally rejects” the decision to seek the arrests of Israeli officials.

“The United States has been clear since well before the current conflict that ICC has no jurisdiction over this matter,” Blinken said. “The ICC was established by its state parties as a court of limited jurisdiction. Those limits are rooted in principles of complementarity, which do not appear to have been applied here amid the prosecutor’s rush to seek these arrest warrants rather than allowing the Israeli legal system a full and timely opportunity to proceed.”

If the court’s judges approve the warrant, Netanyahu could face arrest in any country that is a party to the court, which includes most of Europe.