Alan Dershowitz to form team to defend Israeli leaders at ICC

Renowned lawyer Alan Dershowitz announced in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal that he is assembling a team to defend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant before the International Criminal Court (ICC), after the court issued issue warrants for them on charges of "war crimes" in the Gaza Strip during the conflict with Hamas and other terrorist groups following the October 7 attack.

Dershowitz, a former Harvard University professor, called the allegations 'false' and stated that the case will not only be tried in a court in The Hague, Netherlands, where the ICC is based, but "will also be tried in the court of public opinion, both in the U.S. and throughout the world."

Dershowitz added that a host of top lawyers have pledged to join the team, including former FBI director Louis Freeh and Andrew Cuomo, the former attorney general and governor of New York, among others.

"We will argue that the ICC has no jurisdiction against Israel, not only because it isn’t a member, but also because the treaty that established that court precludes it from considering cases against any country with a valid judicial system that is willing and able to investigate the alleged crimes," the lawyer said.

"Israel has one of the best and most independent legal systems in the world, one that is both willing and able to investigate its own leaders. The Israeli courts have convicted and imprisoned a former prime minister, a former president and several ministers. Hamas has no such judicial system," Dershowitz added.

The lawyer further stated that the team will prove that Israel's actions in Gaza do not violate international law or the laws of war.

Dershowitz also criticized the ICC's intention to "equate the terrorism of Hamas, which murdered, raped and kidnapped approximately 1,450 Israelis, mostly civilians, with the self-defense efforts of Israel to prevent a promised recurrence of Oct. 7."

The lawyer concluded the article by expressing his hope to bring justice to Israel and its leaders, as well as to the "rule of international law, which is being disgraced and destroyed by the ICC. We welcome others to join in this endeavor," and urged more specialists to join the team.

Israel and other countries criticize the ICC's decision

After the ICC issued the arrest warrants, Netanyahu's office released a statement calling the move "antisemitic." It added that "Israel vehemently rejects the absurd and false actions and accusations against it by the International Criminal Court, a biased and discriminatory political body."

The prime minister's office also said the decision was made by "a corrupt chief prosecutor (Karim Khan) who is trying to save himself from serious accusations of sexual harassment, and by biased judges driven by anti-Semitic hatred of Israel."

"No anti-Israel decision will prevent the State of Israel from defending its citizens," it added.

Reactions to the ICC's decision were divided worldwide, with the harshest condemnations coming from authorities in the United States, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Argentina."

U.S. President Joe Biden said that "the ICC prosecutor's request for arrest warrants for Israeli leaders is outrageous." He added: "And I want to be clear: whatever the prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence, none, between Israel and Hamas," the president added.

"We will always stand with Israel in the face of threats to its security," Biden concluded.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán invited Netanyahu to visit his country and assured that his government would not comply with the arrest warrant issued by the ICC.

The Czech Republic joined the international condemnation of the ICC's decision. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala called the decision "unfortunate" and said that it "undermines its authority in other cases when it equates elected representatives of a democratic state with the leaders of an Islamist terrorist organization."

The Argentine government was among the first to condemn the ICC's decision. "Israel faces brutal aggression, inhumane hostage-taking, and the indiscriminate launching of attacks against its population," said Javier Milei's administration in a statement. It added that "criminalizing the legitimate defense of a nation while ignoring these atrocities is an act that distorts the spirit of international justice."