Merz says Netanyahu will be able to visit Germany despite ICC warrant

Despite the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant against him, Friedrich Merz, who is expected to be Germany’s next chancellor, says he will ensure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can travel to Germany.

Merz claimed in a congratulatory phone call that he told Netanyahu to meet with a new German government after his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party won national elections.

“In the event that he]Netanyahu] plans to visit Germany, I have promised myself that we will find a way to ensure that he can visit Germany and leave again without being arrested”, Merz said from Berlin.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s refusal to travel to the Federal Republic of Germany is a truly absurd idea, I believe. He will be able to visit Germany”, he added.

In a statement, Netanyahu’s office claimed that Merz had explicitly requested the Israeli prime minister make a formal visit to Germany in protest of the scandalous International Criminal Court’s design.

On charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Mohammed Deif, Netanyahu, and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, both of whom were wanted by the ICC.

Deif was killed in an Israeli airstrike in July, according to Hamas and Israel.

The ICC, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, responded to Herz’s remarks on Monday, saying that states have a legal obligation to enforce its decisions.

The court further advised that any questions that might be raised by countries should be addressed promptly and effectively.

“The courts are not arbitrary in their determination of the court’s legality.”

Gaza war

Israel has condemned the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, saying that it has acted in self-defence against Hamas’s October 2023 attacks on Israel.

However, Palestinians were targeted by Israel in the Gaza Strip, which had been destroyed in 15 months of conflict, according to human rights organizations and international law experts.

More than 48, 000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. However, thousands more are reportedly dead and reported missing beneath the rubble.

There are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Gallant and Netanyahu “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity”, the ICC said in its November decision.

The Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, includes 124 state parties across six continents.

International human rights lawyer Jonathan Kuttab told Al Jazeera after the arrest warrants were issued last year that countries that are members of the ICC are legally required to carry out their arrest warrants under the law.

The presumption that people will follow the law governs how the law is applied. That’s how all laws are created”, Kuttab said. Everyone must follow the law, according to you. The law itself is broken by those who don’t uphold it.

Germany has long supported the ICC and has been a steadfast supporter of Israel.

The ICC has no way to enforce that because it is a member state of the court. However, the country is required to detain suspects who enter their country and face arrest warrants if they enter.

A spokesperson for the German government stated that it would “carefully examine” the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant but wouldn’t move forward until after the ICC’s decision in November.

One of the ICC’s biggest supporters is the federal government, who was involved in the creation of the ICC statute. This position is also a result of German history”, the spokesperson said.

Source: Aljazeera