Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has praised US President Donald Trump and his administration for sanctioning the International Criminal Court (ICC). Both countries have been targeted by the court with probes into alleged war crimes.
“I would like to thank the president for his leadership in sanctioning the corrupt and biased international court obsessed with a witch hunt against Israel and the United States,” Netanyahu said during a press conference on Thursday.
The Israeli PM has invoked the anti-Semitism card as well, claiming that the ICC ultimately believes that the “Jews living in their historic homeland constitutes a war crime.”
Netanyahu also did not miss the opportunity to take a jab at Israel’s arch-enemy, stating that the ICC “turns a blind eye to the world’s worst human rights offenders, including the terrorist regime in Iran.”
Neither the US nor Israel have accepted the jurisdiction of the court, which has launched investigations into their activities. Washington has faced a probe into alleged war crimes committed by US troops in Afghanistan. Tel Aviv came under scrutiny over actions of the Israeli military in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Earlier in the day, Trump signed an executive order sanctioning all the ICC officials engaged into “any effort” to probe and prosecute US personnel for war crimes.
The White House accused the ICC of conducting “politically-motivated investigations” against the US and its allies “including Israel.” In addition, the US administration has a “strong reason to believe” that the court indulges in “corruption and misconduct” at the highest level.
Both Israel and the US have repeatedly warned the ICC against conducting investigations of their military. They have also argued that Palestine – which is a member of the ICC – does not qualify as a sovereign state, thus its complaints cannot be accepted by the ICC at all.
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