The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet (Renaissance), estimated on Tuesday that as a signatory to the statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), France “must follow the rules” and arrest the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, if he came to French territory.
“From the moment France is a signatory, a member of the Rome Statute and recognizes the ICC, I think that it must apply the rules resulting from it, there is no reason to deviate from them”explained Yaël Braun-Pivet on Sud Radio.
The International Criminal Court, which Israel has not joined and from which the United States has withdrawn, issued arrest warrants on Thursday against Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister Yoav Gallant and the head of the branch Hamas army, Mohammed Deif, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“This is the whole difficulty of international justice (…)it’s still complicated to have justice that is not recognized by everyone”estimated the President of the French Assembly, nevertheless defending “the strict application of the law”. “Under the separation of powers, I have no injunction to make to the government and the executive power”she clarified, “but, in any case, we must draw the consequences of this accession to the ICC, obviously”.
Paris a “taken note” Thursday of these arrest warrants, recalling “his attachment to the independent work of the Court”but without explicitly saying whether France would arrest them if these people went to its territory. Italy and the United Kingdom, on the other hand, immediately announced that they would respect their commitment to the ICC. Conversely, Hungary invited the head of the Israeli government as a sign of defiance.
