The office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday evening excoriated International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, who requested earlier on Tuesday to expedite arrest warrants with “utmost urgency” against Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

The prosecutor’s request was submitted just weeks after the submission of positions in the case by dozens of entities and countries, about half of which – in both quantitative and qualitative terms – supported Israel’s arguments. However, Israeli officials still have significant concerns that the arrest warrants will be issued.

Netanyahu’s office stated: “The comparison made by the Hague prosecutor between the Prime Minister and Israel’s Defense Minister, who are battling Hamas’s murderous terrorism per the laws of war, and the war criminal Sinwar, who executes Israeli hostages in cold blood, is pure antisemitism and a moral disgrace of the first order. Unfortunately, we’ve seen from the start that the processes in the Hague are politically biased and not based on any professional legal foundations.”

Reuters reported in July that on May 20, the same day that Khan made a surprise request for warrants to arrest Netanyahu, Gallant, and Hamas leaders, he suddenly canceled a scheduled trip to Israel to collect evidence on the decision.

Reuters spoke to eight people with direct knowledge of the matter, who said that plans for the visit had been discussed for months with US officials. The trip was intended to allow Israeli officials to present their position regarding the allegation of war crimes and for Khan and his team to collect “evidence.” Apparently, Khan decided that he didn’t need any “evidence” for his antisemitic claims.

In August, the Daily Telegraph reported that the organization UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) threatened to charge Khan, a British lawyer, with professional misconduct. The organization sent a lengthy and detailed letter to Khan refuting all his accusations against Netanyahu and Gallnat and wrote detailed evidence proving his allegations false. The letter stressed that if Khan does not retract his request for the arrest warrants, which contain false information, he will have violated professional codes for English barristers and it will report him.

Earlier on Tuesday, Reshet Bet reported that nine months after filing a lawsuit against Israel in The Hague, South Africa is trying to postpone the deadline for the submission of evidence.

The postponement is related to the main proceedings in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where South Africa claimed that Israel violated the Genocide Convention. South Africa is trying to “buy time,” understanding that it does not have enough evidence against Israel for its false claim.

In an “interesting coincidence,” both Khan and the president of the ICJ, Nawaf Salam, are Muslims.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)