France and Poland criticize the ICC’s “comparisons” between Israel and Hamas

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Tusk sees the equivalences as unacceptable but affirms that Netanyahu is “co-responsible” for the crisis in the Middle East

May 21. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The authorities of France and Poland have criticized this Tuesday the “comparisons” between Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) that may arise from the request of the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against several leaders. of the Palestinian armed group and, in turn, of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that the comparison drawn “between the leaders of a terrorist organization and the Prime Minister of Israel” is “unacceptable”, although he has admitted that Netanyahu’s “political evolution raises skepticism about what does”.

Likewise, he has expressed that he does not consider himself a “fan” of the Israeli prime minister since he has known him “for a long time,” according to the newspaper ‘Rzeczpospolita’. “I could even say that at the beginning of his first term we were friends, or something like that, but his political evolution has made that change. I think he is co-responsible for the crisis in the Middle East, without mentioning internal politics,” he said. .

However, he stated that “trying to prove that the Israeli prime minister and the leaders of a terrorist organization like Hamas are the same (…) is absolutely unacceptable.”

For his part, the French Foreign Minister, Stéphane Sejourné, has urged “not to draw equivalences” between the requests issued simultaneously and whose ultimate objective is both members of Hamas and senior officials of the Israeli Government, as stated in a speech before Parliament.

Thus, he stressed that Hamas is a “terrorist group that celebrated the attacks of October 7”, which killed 1,200 people on Israeli soil. Israel, for its part, “is a democratic State that must respect International Law when fighting a war that it did not decide to start on its own,” the French minister pointed out.

In this sense, he has asserted that France “recognizes the independence of the CFI” and has stated that “it is now in the hands of the judges to decide whether or not to issue those arrest warrants in question.” “They will do it independently,” he explained before insisting that France shows its “solidarity with both the Israeli and Palestinian people”, while remaining “committed to achieving a peaceful solution to the conflict.”