President Biden said Thursday that the U.S. does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court after the tribunal’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
“We’ve made our position clear on the ICC. We don’t recognize their jurisdiction, ICC, the way it’s being exercised. We don’t think there’s an equivalence between what Israel did and what Hamas did,” Mr. Biden said at a joint press conference with Kenyan President William Ruto.
The U.S. is not one of the 124 countries that are ICC parties.
Since the ICC issued the warrants, Mr. Biden has emphatically defended Israel against war crimes charges being pursued by the world’s top court.
At a separate event this week, Mr. Biden insisted there was “no equivalence between Israel and Hamas.” He also issued a strongly worded statement saying the ICC warrants were “outrageous.”
Israel is facing a separate case on alleged genocide at the International Court of Justice, which was brought by South Africa.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan requested the arrest warrants on Monday alleging the Israeli leaders were committing war crimes.
The U.S. and Israel have repeatedly insisted the Jewish state’s actions in Gaza are completely different from Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack. Hamas deliberately targeted Israeli civilians in the raid, which killed more than 1,100 people with 250 more taken hostage. They also have accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields in Gaza.
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