AJ
⚡️ Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was angered to find out the International Criminal Court at the Hague had issued an application for an arrest warrant, which came after both Smotrich and Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir were implicated in an initially denied report but was later confirmed, leading the ministers to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, on the ICC’s wanted list.
🔹 Smotrich angrily said: “I have been informed that the prosecutor of the ‘antisemitic’ court has submitted a request for a fundamental international arrest warrant against me – this request joins the unprecedented arrest warrants issued against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Gallant.
🔹 “This clumsy attempt to force upon us a policy of security suicide through sanctions and arrest warrants will not succeed.
🔹 “As a sovereign and independent state, we will not accept hypocritical dictates from biased bodies that repeatedly stand against the State of Israel – against our biblical, historical, and legal rights in our homeland, and against our right and duty to self-defence and security.
🔹 “Issuing arrest warrants against the Prime Minister is a declaration of war; issuing arrest warrants against the Defence Minister and the Finance Minister is a declaration of war; and in the face of a declaration of war, we will respond with war.”
🔹 Smotrich continued saying he wasn’t a submissive Jew: “The Palestinian Authority started a war, and it will receive war,” he warned, adding: “As of today (Tuesday 19 May), every economic or other target within my authority to strike – whether as Finance Minister or as a minister in the Defence Ministry – will be attacked, not with words or gimmicks, but with actions.
🔹 “And I announce here and now the first target that will be attacked: immediately after my remarks, we will sign an order for the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar, (Jerusalem),” adding: “I promise all of you – this is only the beginning.”
🔹 Smotrich then publicly attacked Europe, saying that many European countries never ‘excelled in love’ for Zion: “Hypocrisy and double standards have become the trademark of many of those countries,” he said, and concluded: “I say here unequivocally: if Hezbollah does not surrender, we will take more and more territory from them (and Lebanon in the process).”
