Argentina's President Javier Millay's office issued a statement saying it “categorically rejects” the International Criminal Court's (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Milley's office accused the ICC of “criminalizing a state's right to legitimate self-defense” and supported Israel's right to “protect its people from annihilation.”
“Israel faces a brutal invasion, an inhumane taking of hostages, and the launch of indiscriminate attacks against its people,” the presidential statement declared. “To criminalize the legitimate defense of a nation while ignoring these atrocities is an act that perverts the spirit of international justice.”
Milley's office accused the ICC of being “influenced by politics” and noted that ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, who requested the arrest warrant, “remains obligated to make restitution.” [the public] It's a resolution against communist dictator Nicolas Maduro for crimes against humanity. ” In 2021, the ICC launched a formal investigation into President Maduro's rampant human rights crimes against his own people, but the ICC announced that President Maduro's socialist government would play a key role in its own investigation, infuriating human rights activists. I let it happen.
“Argentina expresses its solidarity with Israel, reaffirms its right to protect its people and demands the immediate release of all hostages,” the statement concluded.
The ICC is a unique international platform that prosecutes individuals solely on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. There is no enforcement mechanism; state States that signed and ratified the Rome Statute, which created the tribunal, have an international legal obligation to abide by it. Argentina is a signatory to the Rome Statute, while Israel has signed but not ratified the Rome Statute and therefore has no obligations to the court.
As a signatory, Argentina is theoretically obligated to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they visit the country, but Milley has rejected this obligation and is likely to ignore it.
In May, ICC Prosecutor Khan ordered the court to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu, Gallant, and three other leaders of the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, and Mohamed Diab. Requested for publication. Khan accused Israeli leaders of “war crimes” and three types of “crimes against humanity”: “starvation, extermination and persecution.”
This warrant request stems from the horrific events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and committed an unprecedented massacre of an estimated 1,200 people, many of them in door-to-door raids on residential areas. died in Survivors described numerous incidents of gang rape, torture, and the torture and killing of children, including infants. The terrorists also abducted more than 200 people, many of them Argentinian-Israeli, and it is believed that about 100 of them remain in captivity.
Mr. Khan cited these crimes as the reason for seeking warrants against Hamas officials, but equated these acts with self-defense actions by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. The IDF invaded Hamas-held Gaza, aiming to eliminate terrorist infrastructure, weapons stockpiles, and groups of trained terrorists who could repeat the atrocities of the October 7 attack. Khan has accused Netanyahu of deliberately starving and persecuting Gaza civilians, an accusation Jerusalem has vigorously denied.
The ICC granted all warrants requested in connection with the October 7 attack. Haniya and Sinwar passed away this week, pending the ICC's decision.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's office issued a blistering statement condemning the issuance of the warrant, calling the move “anti-Semitic” and supporting Hamas.
“Israel completely rejects the false and absurd accusations of the International Criminal Court, a biased and discriminatory political organization,” the statement said. “There is no more just war than the one Israel has been waging in Gaza since October 7, 2023, in which the terrorist organization Hamas launched a murderous attack and committed the largest genocide against the Jewish people since the Holocaust. went.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to “not bow to pressure” and “continue to pursue all the goals Israel has set out to achieve in its just war against the Hamas-Iranian axis of terror.”
In Argentina, Mr. Milay launched a joint counter-terrorism initiative with Israel, following his defense of the Israeli government.
“We are moving forward with a historic memorandum of understanding with the government of Israel, a bilateral alliance between brotherly nations to protect freedom and democracy.” [and] “In the fight against terrorism and dictatorships,” Millais said. declared. “It is our hope that this alliance between Argentina and Israel will serve as a model for the rest of the free world to choose life and liberty and to firmly and publicly condemn terrorism.”
Argentina has a large Jewish population and has traditionally maintained friendly relations with Israel, making it a target of international Islamic extremist terrorism. It was the target of the worst terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere before 2001. In 1994, the Argentine-Israel Mutual Association (AMIA) headquarters was bombed, killing 85 people. Decades of investigation have revealed that the Iranian government and its terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, were behind the attack. In April, an Argentine court formally declared Iran and Hezbollah guilty of a bombing similar to the 1992 attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
Millais first visited Israel in February, stopping in some of the communities most devastated by the massacre and commemorating the victims of the October 7 attack.
