By Steven Scheer and Stephanie van den Berg
JERUSALEM/THE HAGUE, May 19 (Reuters) – Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday he was told the International Criminal Court prosecutor had sought a confidential arrest warrant against him, adding he would retaliate by waging a “war” on the Palestinian Authority.
He said he had ordered the evacuation of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as part of measures against the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank under agreements with Israel.
“The Palestinian Authority has started a war, and it will get a war,” Smotrich told a press conference, reflecting Israeli government anger at what it sees as Palestinian backing for international legal action over the conflict in Gaza.
To that end, Smotrich said, he had ordered the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar, using his authority as finance minister and as a minister in the defence ministry to harm the PA.
On Smotrich’s remarks about Khan al-Ahmar, senior Palestinian official Wasel Abu Youssef told Reuters the decision to evacuate it was “very dangerous” and a firm international position was needed to stop what he called further crimes.
The office of the prosecutor at the ICC declined to comment, citing confidentiality of the process. The ICC has previously said its prosecutor is independent and impartial when selecting situations to investigate.
Smotrich did not specify who had informed him of the warrant on Monday evening, and the process of seeking warrants is confidential. He also did not reveal the ICC’s reasons.
Describing the court as “antisemitic”, Smotrich said he had been told that the ICC prosecutor “submitted a secret request for an international arrest warrant against me.”
“As a sovereign and independent state, we will not accept hypocritical dictates from biased bodies that consistently stand against the State of Israel, against our biblical, historical, and legal rights in our homeland, and against our right and duty to self-defense and security.”
Israel is not a member of the court and does not recognise its jurisdiction, but the Palestinian territories were admitted as an ICC member state in 2015.
SMOTRICH SAYS HE IS PROUD OF ‘SETTLEMENT ENTERPRISE’
This, together with a ruling by judges, means the court can look at potential war crimes carried out by Hamas fighters in Israel and by Israelis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Prosecutors can submit an application to judges, which under new court rules is kept sealed. Judges then have to find there are reasonable grounds to conclude a suspect has committed crimes under ICC jurisdiction in order to issue an ICC warrant.
The court declined to comment on Smotrich’s charge of antisemitism.
Smotrich, who has been unapologetic over his pro-settlement and anti-Palestinian state credentials, said attempts “to force upon us a policy of security suicide through sanctions and arrest warrants will not succeed.”
The ICC in November 2024 had issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief, Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict.
A request for another ICC arrest warrant against a sitting Israeli official, if accurate, could trigger additional retaliation against the court by key Israeli ally the U.S.
U.S. opposition to the arrest warrant for Netanyahu has been bipartisan and under the Trump administration sanctions were imposed against 11 ICC judges and prosecutors involved in the “the Palestine situation”.
Britain and four other nations last year imposed sanctions on Smotrich and another far-right Israeli cabinet minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Smotrich has called for the permanent conquest of Gaza and re-establishment of Jewish settlements there that Israel abandoned in 2005, notions that Netanyahu has rejected. He also has worked to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank, calling it part of Jews’ “biblical and eternal homeland.”
“We are … turning the settlement enterprise into something irreversible,” he said. “I am proud of all this. Very proud.”
The two-year Gaza war was triggered by an October 7, 2023 raid by Hamas militants and heavy Israeli military retaliation.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer in Jerusalem and Stephanie Van Den Berg in The Hague; Additional reporting by Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam and Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem, and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Editing by William Maclean)
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