Following the United Kingdom, Canada said it would “comply” with the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “We stand up for international law, and we will abide by all rulings and rulings of international courts.”
“This is who we are as Canadians,” he said.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for the Israeli Prime Minister and his former Defense Minister Yoav Galant on Thursday for “crimes against humanity” committed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war against the militant Palestinian group on October 7, 2023. It started with the attack.
A warrant was also issued for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif.
Earlier on Friday, the British government had indicated that if Netanyahu travels to Britain he could be arrested on an ICC arrest warrant.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “The UK will always comply with its legal obligations set out by domestic law and indeed international law.”
However, he declined to be asked specifically about whether UK police would detain Netanyahu, telling reporters he would not “get into hypotheticals regarding personal matters”.
Both the UK and Canada are part of the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance that also includes Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Other countries that agreed to abide by the ICC decision include Belgium, the European Union, France, Iran, Ireland, Jordan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, Switzerland and Turkey.
However, other key Five Eyes member the US has described the move as ‘disgraceful’. “The ICC issuing arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
“Let me make it clear once again: No matter what the ICC says, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security,” the statement said.
However, the warrants were supported by US Senator Bernie Sanders, who addressed the conference and said: “All of them lead to indiscriminate attacks against civilians and cause unimaginable humanitarian suffering”.
“If the world does not follow international law, we will descend into greater barbarity,” he said.
Other countries that have declared ‘disagreement’ with the ICC decisions include Argentina, Austria and Hungary.
