The Board of Deputies has responded to the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.
“The ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders sends a terrible message. The court has minimalised how Hamas fights – deliberately from within civilian infrastructure and cruelly using Palestinian civilians as human shields, tragically leading to many casualties.
“Democratic governments, and people around the world, should consider how they would have responded to an October 7th perpetrated against their country, involving mass murder, rape and hostage taking.
“We should all be focused on defeating the Hamas terrorists, liberating the hostages, ensuring that civilians in Gaza receive all necessary aid and working towards a sustainable peace for Israelis and Palestinians to prevent these horrible conflicts in the future. The decision of the ICC is counter-productive in all these respects.”