Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced his support for an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the current conflict in Gaza. The senator’s comments align him with the left wing of Congress and against the wishes of Republicans in the Senate.
Sanders said that the decision of ICC prosecutor Karim Khan to indict Netanyahu and several Israeli officials was “right.”
“These arrest warrants may or may not be carried out, but it is imperative that the global community uphold international law. Without these standards of decency and morality, this planet may rapidly descend into anarchy, never-ending wars and barbarism,” Sanders wrote.
Netanyahu called the indictment an “outrageous decision” and said that an effort to “seek arrest warrants against the democratically elected leaders of Israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions.”
“It will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court,” he said.
As the prime minister of Israel, I reject with disgust the Hague prosecutor’s comparison between democratic Israel and the mass murderers of Hamas,” the prime minister added.
“This is a complete distortion of reality. This is exactly what the new antisemitism looks like. It has moved from the campuses in the West to the court in The Hague,” he said.
The outrageous decision by the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to seek arrest warrants against the democratically elected leaders of Israel is a moral outrage of historic proportions.
It will cast an everlasting mark of shame on the international court. pic.twitter.com/NJKYv06fyE
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 20, 2024
Despite the comment from Sanders, the Biden administration condemned the move, including through a statement from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The Biden administration has grown increasingly critical of the Israeli government but stopped short of accepting the ICC’s decision.
Furthermore, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) endorsed new elections in Israel as a means to replace Netanyahu earlier this year.
The prosecutor accused Netanyahu and the Israeli government of allegedly bearing responsibility for “war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of the State of Palestine.”
This included accusations of “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare” and “intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population” during Israel’s current campaign against the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
