Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, said Israeli Prime Minister would be arrested if he arrived on Canadian soil following warrants issued by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes in Gaza..
At a press conference on Thursday, Trudeau said: “First of all, as Canada has always said, it’s really important that everyone abide by international law. This is something we’ve been calling on from the beginning of the conflict.”
He observed that Canada had been one of the founder member of the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.
The ICC, which is based in the Hague, issued the warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defence Minister, over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity on Thursday.
“We stand up for international law, and we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts,” Trudeau added. “This is just who we are as Canadians.”
Netanyahu has called the court’s decision a “modern Dreyfus trial,” while US President Joe Biden reiterated his previous condemnation of the court’s intervention as “outrageous.”
Leo Housakos, a Quebec senator, wrote that Trudeau’s comments were “disgraceful”.
Housakos commented, “This ill-considered endorsement of the ICC’s politically motivated actions is a slap in the face to our ally and to every innocent Israeli still being held hostage. We stand with the people of Israel and support their right to self-defence against terrorism.
“The actions taken by both the ICC and Justin Trudeau should be condemned as a dangerous precedent that threatens global stability and the principles of international law.”
Michael Teper, a board member of Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, told the Jewish News Syndicate, “I have to say that we’re horrified, but not shocked.”
The Canadian Prime Minister’s statement was “sadly highly predictable and indicative of the overall attitudes of the government of Canada these days,” Teper said. “It’s really just sad that Mr. Trudeau is taking this approach.”
Earlier in the day, Anthony Housefather, Canadian special advisor on Jewish community relations and antisemitism, wrote that “Israel was attacked by terrorists on October. The warrant issued by the ICC today against Netanyahu and Gallant claims their crimes started as early as Oct. 8. A day Israel was in shock, grief and mourning. The ICC discredits itself by its actions today.”
Amir Epstein, director of Tafsik, an Israel advocacy group with affiliates in Toronto and Winnipeg, told JNS that “the idea that Canada is aligned with Islamofascist countries that dictate what the ICC, the ICJ and the United Nations say and do is no longer surprising to anyone.”
He noted that dictators are able to “come freely into Canada,” which “is both laughable and embarrassing at the same time.”
The Abraham Global Peace Initiative in Toronto stated that it “expresses its strongest condemnation” of the court’s “reckless and politically motivated” action.
“The decision underscores the ICC’s troubling trend of weaponization against Israel, prepared by the Palestinian Authority and its allies since 2015,” the group said. “The ICC’s arrest warrants dangerously distort international justice by empowering extremists, exacerbating global antisemitism and undermining peace efforts during a time of heightened tensions.”