Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tuesday that he had been informed of an international arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“Last night I was informed that a request for a secret international arrest warrant was filed against me by the prosecutor of the antisemitic court in The Hague,” Smotrich told a news conference, as cited by the daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
Smotrich described the move as an attempt “to impose a policy of security suicide on us through sanctions and arrest warrants.”
“We will not accept hypocritical dictates from biased bodies that repeatedly stand against the State of Israel,” he added, saying that “a large part of European countries have never excelled in love of Zion. Hypocrisy and double standards have become the hallmark of many countries.”
On Sunday, the daily Haaretz, citing an unnamed diplomatic source, said the ICC chief prosecutor requested sealed arrest warrants for “an unspecified number of Israeli officials.”
