J Street – the pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy movement – expressed deep sadness that we have now come to a point whereby the International Criminal Court feels it justified to issue arrest warrants for two top government officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and recently fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“It is unbearably painful for friends of Israel – particularly those who have lived there, have family and friends there and have been partners over decades in building the country – to read international justices hold that there are reasonable grounds to believe that leading Israeli officials have knowingly and intentionally violated international laws, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare and other horrific crimes against humanity,” said J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami.
“This deeply distressing ruling is one more clear sign of the lasting damage this extreme right-wing government is doing to the State of Israel, its place in the world and its long-term security.”
The warrants come on the heels of a landmark vote in the United States Senate in which a record 19 Democratic Senators publicly sent a message of disapproval of the conduct of the Gaza war by this government and of yet another 14-1 vote in the United Nations Security Council calling on Israel to stop its military campaign in Gaza.
There will be many in Israel and in the American Jewish community who will look at all these actions within one 24-hour period and blame them on antisemitism or inherent enmity for Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people. This is the wrong response.
Israelis, instead, need to consider that many of its friends around the world are looking at the government of Israel’s actions in the wake of the barbaric terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, and are sending an unmistakable signal: You have gone too far. Change course. It is time for this war to end and to start creating a pathway out of this nightmare with the support of neighbors and partners all over the world.
As justified as the military response may have been to the initial attack, the humanitarian catastrophe, the level of death and destruction and the denial of assistance to civilians are not only unacceptable, they violate international norms and rules. The world sees and hears the many Israeli government leaders who are expressing their intent to forge ahead with further illegality: Annexation of occupied territory, expansion of civilian settlements and potential movement and expulsion of civilian populations – not just in the West Bank but Gaza too.
J Street is deeply saddened that we have reached this moment. The creation and success of the State of Israel over 75 years has been a wonder for so many of us, and we want nothing more than for it to be secure, democratic, prosperous and at peace with its neighbors. A homeland not only for the Jewish people, but for our Jewish values as well.
We have reached a point where none of that will be possible because of leaders who have chosen to take the country down a path of never-ending war, annexation and actions outside the bounds of international law.
It is an expression of our profoundly pro-Israel beliefs that we say that the actions of today’s leaders not only go against the laws the international community has established to protect human rights and govern the conduct of war, but they go against the ideals and values of those who founded the State of Israel and wrote the very laws that this government’s leaders today so brazenly violate.
Leaders in the United States may agree or disagree with the decision today. But we urge them not to score political points by attacking courts or undermining the rule of law. Calls to penalize or intimidate court officials undermine our values and do not serve the American interest in a stable world order rooted in the rule of law.