Biden Says US ‘Doesn’t Recognize’ ICC’s Jurisdiction, Reiterates No ‘Equivalence’ Between Israel and Hamas

US President Joe Biden on Thursday publicly rebuked the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to seek arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, saying that the US doesn’t recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction.

“We’ve made our position clear on the ICC. We don’t recognize their jurisdiction, ICC, the way it’s being exercised. It’s that simple,” Biden said during a joint press conference with Kenyan President William Ruto in Washington, DC. “We don’t think there’s an equivalence between what Israel did and what Hamas did.”

The comments echo Biden’s previous condemnation of the ICC’s decision. While speaking to reporters in the White House Rose Garden on Monday, Biden rejected the idea that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza. 

“We reject the ICC’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders,” Biden said.

“Whatever these warrants may imply, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas,” he added. “And it’s clear Israel wants to do all it can to ensure civilian protection.”

“But let me be clear,” Biden added. “Contrary to allegations against Israel made by the International Court of Justice, what’s happening is not genocide. We reject that. We’re going to always stand with Israel and the threats against their security.”

The ICC announced on Monday that it would seek arrest warrants for the Israeli leaders alongside three key members of Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group that started the ongoing war with its Oct. 7 invasion of Israel’s southern border and massacre of civilians. The ICC claims that all five men — Netanyahu, Gallant, Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh — are responsible for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

Leaders across both major US political parties condemned the ICC’s decision, arguing that it established unfair equivalencies between terrorism and actions of self-defense. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the ICC’s announcement “reprehensible” and “profoundly unfair.” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) issued a statement calling the warrant requests baseless and illegitimate.”

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken expressed support for potentially levying sanctions against the ICC over their decision to target the Israeli leaders, saying that the State Department “fundamentally rejects” the organization’s warrant request. 

“Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that carried out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding dozens of innocent people hostage, including Americans,” Blinken said before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

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