Germany says it will arrest Gaza butcher if he comes to country

Germany: We will execute ICC warrant against Netanyahu.

“Clear. Yes, we comply with the law,” said a spokesman for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Germany will detain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for him, a German government spokesman said on Wednesday.

Asked by reporters in Berlin whether Germany would execute an ICC warrant against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Steffen Hebestreit, spokesman for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said: “Of course. Yes, we follow the law,” Politico reported.

Judges at the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber are considering a request from prosecutor Karim Khan to charge the two Israeli officials with “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

The Palestinian Authority has already declared its acceptance of the ICC’s jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed by the Jewish State. However, Jerusalem does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction over the actions of the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria.

If the Hague court gives the green light to the warrants, it would constitute an “unprecedented anti-Semitic hate crime,” Netanyahu warned late last month after initial reports emerged about Khan’s intentions.

The ICC prosecutor is requesting warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for crimes including “causing extermination, causing famine as a method of warfare, including denying humanitarian aid supplies [e] deliberately targeting civilians in conflict,” Khan told CNN on Monday.

Separate charges against Gaza Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar, “political” leader Ismail Haniyeh and “military” chief Mohammed Deif include “extermination, murder, hostage taking, rape and sexual assault in detention,” Khan said.

Following Khan’s announcement, Germany declared that it respects the independence of the Hague court. “The International Criminal Court is a fundamental achievement of the international community that Germany has always supported. Germany respects its independence and the conduct of proceedings, as it does with all other international courts”, stated the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Berlin.

Germany noted, however, that “the simultaneous requests for arrest warrants for the Hamas leadership, on the one hand, and the two Israeli officials, on the other, resulted in an incorrect implication of equivalence.”

The letter went on to state that: “The Court will have a number of difficult questions to answer here, including, in particular, the question of its jurisdiction and the complementarity of investigations carried out by States affected by and governed by the rule of law, which include Israel.”

Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor took to X on Tuesday to criticize what he described as “the weak statements we heard from some institutions and political actors” following Khan’s announcement.

“The Attorney General 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,” he tweeted.

“The German ‘Staatsräson’ is now being put to the test – without ifs or buts”, in reference to former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s famous promise that Israel’s security is Germany’s “raison of state”.

On Tuesday, an Israeli government spokeswoman urged “nations of the civilized world” to disregard the warrants if the court issues them.

With information from the Jewish News Syndicate