Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi continued his diplomatic blitz against the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) steps towards a war crimes probe against Israel and spoke on Tuesday with the foreign ministers from Canada, Hungary, and Cyrus.
The ICC ruled Friday that its jurisdiction extends to territories liberated by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, possibly clearing the way for its chief prosecutor to open war crimes probes into Israel’s military actions and its presence in Judea and Samaria.
Ashkenazi emphasized in his conversations that Israel completely rejects the ICC’s decision and considers it “a fundamentally wrong decision.”
In his conversation with Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau, Ashkenazi congratulated him on his new appointment and “emphasized the strong friendship between our countries.”
He thanked him for Canada’s stance against the ICC’s decision.
Ashkenazi then had “a very good conversation” with Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
He thanked him for Hungary’s position regarding “the wrong decision of the judges of the ICC.”
Szijjártó stated after the conversation that “similar to Israel, Hungary does not agree with this decision.”
“During the legal procedure we already signaled that, according to our position, Palestine does not have criminal jurisdiction over Israeli citizens. We have always supported Israel’s right to defend itself and we believe that peace in the region can only be achieved through negotiations based on mutual respect. The decision of the ICC does not take us closer to this,” he underscored.
They also spoke about cooperating against the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and “stressed the strong friendship between our countries.”
Finally, Ashkenazi had a “productive phone conversation” with Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodulides, who is slated to visit Israel on Sunday together with President Nicos Anastasiades.
“We discussed ways to strengthen cooperation on regional issues and I stressed that Israel totally rejects the ICC’s latest decision,” Ashkenazi stated.
A day after speaking to Ashkenazi, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stated on Tuesday that Germany’s “legal view on the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court regarding alleged crimes committed in the Palestine territories remains unchanged: the court has no jurisdiction because of the absence of the element of Palestinian statehood required by international law.”
“Our positions on the ICC, in general, remain unchanged, too: Since its foundation, Germany has been one of the ICC’s strongest supporters. We support the establishment of a future Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution negotiated by Israelis and Palestinians,” he added.
Australia expressed a similar stance earlier this week.
Ashkenazi spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the issue on Monday.
Israel’s position is that the ICC lacks any jurisdiction on this matter because that no sovereign Palestinian state exists nor does any territory belonging to such an entity. Israel has not joined the Roman Statute.
