'War criminals not welcome': Dearborn Mayor vows to enforce ICC warrant on Netanyahu

A US city has pledged to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant if they visit, based on ICC warrants for war crimes related to the ongoing Gaza genocide.

Abdullah Hammoud, mayor of Dearborn in the Michigan state, said on Thursday that local authorities will "arrest Netanyahu & Gallant if they step within Dearborn city limits," calling on other American cities to follow suit.

"Other cities should declare the same. Our president may not take action, but city leaders can ensure Netanyahu & other war criminals are not welcome to travel freely across the United States," he said in an X post.

The remarks came after the ICC, based in The Hague, ruled there were "reasonable grounds" to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore criminal responsibility as co-perpetrators for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.

In a statement, the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I, a panel of three judges, said it had rejected Israel’s challenges to the court’s jurisdiction and issued warrants for the regime's officials.

ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant for war crimes

The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant.

Now, Netanyahu and Gallant are at risk of arrest if they step foot in any of the 124 countries that signed the Rome Statute establishing the ICC. 

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the ICC warrants for the Israeli premier and his ex-minister are not political and that all EU member states should respect the court decision and implement it.

Several countries, including the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada, Italy, and Spain, said they would meet their commitments regarding the Rome Statute and international law.

However, a White House National Security Council spokesperson said the United States "fundamentally rejects" the court’s decision.

Meanwhile, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, the largest Arab American grassroots civil rights organization in the US, hailed the warrants as “a critical step toward accountability for grave violations of international law”.

“These warrants are not political, nor are they anti-Semitic - they are a direct response to well-documented, independent investigations into war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it added. 

Similarly, American Muslims for Palestine said the ICC's "long-awaited” warrants underscore "the global community’s recognition that Israel's apartheid policies, illegal blockade, and systemic oppression of Palestinians are not above the law."

Israel unleashed its genocidal onslaught on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 44,056 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 104,268 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

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