Jerusalem – A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday criticised the administration of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for saying his country would arrest and deport the Jewish state’s leader if the International Criminal Court enforces a warrant for Netanyahu’s detention and extradition.
“I’m old enough to remember that a few days after October 7th, German leaders came here and said that Hamas is the new Nazis. They want a genocide against the Jews. A lot of people in the world are having trouble with their morality. Must be investigated and be on the right side of history.” Avi Hyman, Spokesperson benjamin netanyahuhe told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
Scholz’s spokesman, Stephan Habestreit, was asked on Wednesday whether the German government would enforce the ICC arrest order against Netanyahu for alleged war crimes during Israel’s efforts to defeat the Hamas terrorist movement in the Gaza Strip. Habestreit responded, “Of course. Yes, we follow the law.”
ICC requests arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Hamas leaders for ‘war crimes’
March 17, 2024, Israel, Jerusalem: Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) give a press statement. (Kay Nietfeld/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, told Fox News Digital, “It is beyond comprehension that any German government would arrest the democratically elected prime minister of a Jewish state over the blood libel lie. All anti-Semites who attack Jews on the streets of the country should be arrested, never again.”
The Scholz administration’s targeting of Netanyahu has triggered comments about Germany’s failure to absorb the lessons of the Holocaust, in which the Nazis arrested, deported and murdered six million European Jews.
A day earlier, Scholz’s spokesman had said Germany would implement the bill. ICC arrest orderIsrael’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, wrote on Germany has a responsibility to readjust this compass. This humiliating political campaign could be the nail in the coffin for the West and its institutions!
Prosor, who was Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, said, “This is outrageous! The German ‘Staatsrassen’ is now being subjected to a trial without any conditions. This is one of the weakest statements we hear from some institutions and political actors. Public statements that Israel has a right to self-defense lose credibility if our hands are tied in defending ourselves.”
A general view of the International Criminal Court (ICC) building in The Hague, Netherlands on April 30, 2024. ((Photo: Selman Aksunghar/Anadolu via Getty Images))
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in 2008 that her country’s reason for existence – in German Staatsrassen – is its security pledge to Israel’s survival and to ensure that Iran’s government does not create a nuclear weapon. called from germanyIn his post-exchange, he infuses meaning and content into the notion of Merkel’s raison d’être towards the Jewish state.
Scholz is a member of the left-wing Social Democratic Party. Merkel comes from the conservative Christian Democratic Union party.
Biden slams ICC’s ‘outrageous’ request for Netanyahu arrest warrant
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during a news conference in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022. Scholz and Abbas were speaking after their bilateral meeting in the German capital. Photographer: Krisztian Boksi/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Germany is an avid supporter of the ICC and is one of its top donors. Netanyahu said of the ICC Chief Prosecutor’s actions in issuing arrest warrants for him and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant that these were the latest examples of “what the new anti-Semitism looks like”.
A spokesman for the federal German government said Tuesday that “the chief prosecutor’s allegations are serious and must be confirmed.”
The ICC’s founding was inspired by Nazi Germany’s extermination of European Jews and as a way to prevent totalitarian crimes against humanity. Critics argue that the ICC’s mission has been subverted by its attack on the Middle East’s only democracy, Israel, which is fighting an existential war against the Iranian regime-backed Hamas movement.
In 2022, Scholz faced strong criticism for failing to respond to anti-Semitic remarks by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian leader Abbas at the time delivered a shocking tirade against Israel in Berlin, claiming the Jewish state was the site of the Holocaust. “50 massacres” were committed.
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When Abbas distorted the genocide and downplayed its significance, Scholz remained silent.
Chancellor Scholz’s spokeswoman and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock did not immediately respond to questions posed by Fox News.
