Israel on Thursday slammed a statement from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s office that Berlin would arrest and deport Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the International Criminal Court implements a warrant for his arrest.
“I am old enough to remember the German leader coming here days after October 7, and stating that Hamas are the new Nazis. They seek a genocide against the Jews. Many in the world need to check their moral compass and be on the right side of history,” government spokesman Avi Hyman told Fox News. (It was Netanyahu, not Scholz, who said “Hamas are the new Nazis” during the German chancellor’s visit to Israel.)
When asked on Wednesday whether Berlin would execute a potential ICC arrest order, German spokesman Steffen Hebestreit responded, “Of course. Yes, we abide by the law.”
Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, also decried the statement in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“This is outrageous!” he wrote. “The public statement that Israel has the right to self-defense loses credibility if our hands are tied as soon as we defend ourselves.”
Prosor added that Germany’s “Staatsräson,” a term that refers to ensuring Israel’s security as one of the European country’s “reason of state,” was “being put to the test.”
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan “equates a democratic government with Hamas, thereby demonizing and delegitimizing Israel and the Jewish people. He has completely lost his moral compass. Germany has a responsibility to readjust this compass,” Prosor added.
Khan announced earlier this week that he was seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”
In the same announcement, Khan said he was seeking warrants for Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s ruler in Gaza; the terror group’s military chief, Mohammed Deif; and the leader of the organization, Ismail Haniyeh. He said they would be charged with extermination, murder, hostage-taking, rape, and sexual assault.
Israel has strongly rejected the charges, denouncing the court for implicitly comparing Israeli leaders to Hamas terrorists.
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