(RepublicanJournal.org) – In late May, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC filed arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for allegedly committing war crimes. If the court accepts the warrants, then authorities in several countries have an obligation to arrest him if he sets foot inside their borders. Netanyahu reportedly changed flight plans recently to avoid such an occurrence.
The Israeli PM is flying to the United States later this month. The flight takes more than 10 hours. He was supposedly planning a stopover in Hungary and the Czech Republic but changed his mind just in case the warrants go into effect. That would mean he would be placed under arrest had he landed in those nations, a request they both say is “unacceptable.”
Netanyahu’s plane is unable to make the full flight across the Atlantic Ocean if he has his full entourage in tow, which is why he entertained the stopover in the first place. However, he has since adjusted the plan and will now travel with a limited entourage and fly directly to the US for his visit with President Joe Biden on July 22 and Congress on July 24.
Gallant and Netanyahu were accused of many war crimes, including the intentional starvation of civilians, causing extermination, and deliberately targeting civilians in a conflict. The move was met with condemnation by both Israel and Washington, and Khan reportedly blindsided his own staff when he filed the warrant request.
Twelve Republican Senators issued a letter of warning to Khan, saying if he went through with the request, he’d be facing “severe sanctions against [him] and [his] institution,” the ICC. The warrants are largely symbolic because Israel is not a member of the court, but it could cause political tension.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, another target of an ICC warrant, recently canceled a visit to South Africa for the same reason.
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