Hamas on ICC charges: Palestinian resistance is NOT a crime

Workers World is in full solidarity with the May 20, 2024, statement below and demands the ICC drop the arrest warrants against Hamas leaders, which falsely equate the heinous crimes against humanity carried out by the U.S.-backed apartheid Israeli state for the past 76 years with armed self-defense of the Palestinian resistance against the settler colonial occupiers. The right to resist by any means necessary is not a crime!

The Public Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court issued arrest and detention warrants against a number of leaders of the Zionist occupation. 

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) followed up on the arrest and detention warrants issued today by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court against only two war criminals of the Zionist entity. They are “Benjamin Netanyahu” and “Yoav Gallant,” who were proven to be involved in committing the crime of genocide, aggression and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people.

The arrest and detention warrants against the aforementioned occupation leaders came seven months late, during which the “israeli” occupation committed thousands of crimes against Palestinian civilians, including children, women, doctors, and journalists, and destroyed private and public property, mosques, churches, and hospitals.

The Public Prosecutor should have arrest and detention orders against all officials from the occupation leaders who gave orders, and soldiers who participated in committing crimes, in accordance with Articles 25, 27 and 28 of the Rome Statute, which emphasized the individual criminal responsibility of every official, commander, or any person who ordered, or instigated, committed, assisted or aided in the commission of crimes, or failed to take measures to prevent the commission of crimes.

The Hamas movement strongly denounces the attempts of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to equate the victim with the executioner by issuing arrest warrants against a number of Palestinian resistance leaders, without a legal basis, in violation of the international conventions and resolutions that gave the Palestinian people and all the peoples of the world under occupation the right to resist the occupation in all forms, including armed resistance, especially as stipulated in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.

Hamas demands the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest and detention orders against all war criminals, including occupation leaders, officers and soldiers who participated in crimes against the Palestinian people. 

It also demands the cancellation of all arrest warrants issued against Palestinian resistance leaders, as these warrants violate international conventions and resolutions.

This statement was lightly edited.