A dividing line runs through French political parties after the announcement, Thursday, November 21, of the issuance of arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his ex-minister of defense Yoav Gallant and the head of the armed wing of Hamas, Mohammed Deif.
On the right and the far right, where support for the Jewish state is displayed without reservation, the tone is particularly critical. “There is clearly a desire to humiliate Israel through this decision”regretted the vice-president of the National Rally Sébastien Chenu on Franceinfo on Friday. “Anything that hinders a political solution is not necessarily welcome at the moment”declared Macronist MP Sylvain Maillard on the same channel. The war in Gaza, triggered after the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which left 1,200 victims, entered its fourteenth month and left more than 43,000 Palestinians dead.
Les Républicains MP Philippe Juvin questioned the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court (ICC), of which France has been a State party since its establishment in 2002. “Who does not see the very worrying drift of international institutions which make the fight against Israel a common point of all these people who, deep down, do not exercise democracy in their own country? »he declared on Sud Radio.
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“War criminal”
The Court's announcement received a completely different reception on the left. “The ICC's decision against Netanyahu and Gallant is the indisputable consequence of their strategy of annihilation, still at work”estimated the head of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier, on X. For Olivier Faure, the boss of the PS, “this decision must lead Western countries to immediately interrupt all deliveries of weapons used in Gaza”. “Netanyahu is a war criminal now actively wanted”welcomed the leader of the rebellious deputies, Mathilde Panot, on X.
The government, for its part, initially recalled that the “fight against impunity” had always been a ” priority “ for Paris. On Friday, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “took note” arrest warrants and recalled “ attachment [de la France] to the independent work of the Court », without explicitly specifying whether France, contrary to what other European countries have stated, would arrest the people involved if they went to its territory.
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