(May 23, 2024 / JNS) - Germany will detain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant against him, a German government spokesman said Wednesday.
Asked by reporters in Berlin if Germany would execute an ICC warrant against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesman for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said, “Of course. Yes, we abide by the law,” Politico reported.
This is kinda huge. Germany is one of Israel’s most ardent supporters. It’s really great to see such a clear and concise answer that confirms a commitment to international rule of law over international politics.
Edit: I hope I did not speak too soon, as this seems like relatively positive news. However I am having a hard time finding the original Politico source that this link refers to. I am also unaware of this source’s integrity. Does anybody else have another source; or the original Politico source that is referred to in this article?
Second edit: apparently this is coming from the Twitter/xitter of politico. I don’t have one of those, so I can’t personally verify the veracity of this statement, but it does seem as if Politico (Peter Wilke (@peterjwilke)) reported this. [I put the name and handle in here for others who may be interested in digging a bit more than me before this is more widely reported]
I found this excerpt in an (automatically translated) article at Kronen Zeitung (Austrian):
https://www.krone.at/3386668
In response to a question from journalists at the Federal Press Conference on Wednesday, government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit explained that Germany is “fundamentally” a supporter of the International Criminal Court. “And that remains the case. We abide by the law,” said Hebestreit, indicating that the possibility of Netanyahu being arrested in the event of a case cannot be ruled out. However, the spokesperson spoke of a “hypothetical question”.