The French government has claimed that Benjamin Netanyahu has immunity from arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court for war crimes on the grounds that Israel is not an ICC member, reports The Guardian.
The claim came soon after Netanyahu’s cabinet agreed to a French-backed ceasefire in Lebanon and is in contrast to Paris’s attitude towards last year’s ICC war crimes warrant issued against Vladimir Putin, another leader of a non-member country.
After the court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, on Friday, France initially signalled that it would fulfil its obligations as a signatory to the Rome statute, the ICC’s founding document, if either visited the country.
However, on Wednesday, the French foreign ministry appeared to change its tone and claimed Netanyahu had immunity because Israel was not signatory to the statute.
“A state cannot be held to act in a way that is incompatible with its obligations in terms of international law with regards to immunities granted to states which are not party to the ICC,” the French statement said.