Isrealis Throws Support For Netanyahu Against International Arrest Warrant

Israeli citizens show support for their officials against the International Criminal Court arrest warrant, with anger and annoyance at Jerusalem’s bustling Mahane Yehuda Market. But the most palpable sentiment was one of unity.

“I think it’s terrible. What about Putin? What about the real evil people?” Sarita Katzin Sarfati said about the court’s decision to call for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes committed in Gaza after the October 7 attack on Israel last year.

“Netanyahu is thinking about his people… and I think that all the world should support us and Bibi is our prime minister, and they should support Bibi as well,” Sarita told CNN, using the Israeli nickname for Netanyahu.

Gil Siegal, a legal scholar at the Ono Academic College in Israel, said The Hague-based court’s decision has united Israelis.

“Israelis come together when under pressure,” he told CNN. “We can disagree because we think Netanyahu should do A over B, fine, but when the outer world is coming to get us, so to speak… this external pressure is a uniting force, not a breaking force,” he said.

Most Israelis still support the war in Gaza, he said, seeing it as a just fight and the only means to keep their country safe. And while many oppose Netanyahu – mass protests calling for his resignation are now happening weekly – most feel he has been targeted unfairly by the ICC.

This is partly because the shock of the brutal October 7 terror attack, during which Hamas-led militants killed more than 1,200 people, is still raw in the country. Many Israelis know someone who was directly impacted by the attack and most have family members or friends who are currently fighting in Gaza or are serving in the military in another capacity.

Portraits of the hostages are on display across Israel, along the sea promenade in Tel Aviv and in the arrivals hall at the country’s airport.

Some Israelis are also outraged that the ICC issued warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant alongside one for Mohammed Al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, the Hamas leader who Israel claims was one of the masterminds of the October 7 attack.

The ICC “is saying that Gallant and Netanyahu are equal to Mohammed Deif… this is something that Israelis truly cannot comprehend, truly, truly cannot comprehend,” Siegal said.

The court said it found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu bears criminal responsibility for war crimes including “starvation as a method of warfare” and “the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

CNN/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma