DEARBORN, Mich. – Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud has a message for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
In a social media post, Hammoud said that if Netanyahu and Gallant enter Dearborn, they will be arrested.
Dearborn will arrest Netanyahu & Gallant if they step within Dearborn city limits.
— Abdullah H. Hammoud (@AHammoudMI) November 21, 2024
Others 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 these United States. pic.twitter.com/eHS8oSMuqt
This statement comes after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant on Thursday.
Netanyahu’s office responded to the warrants, calling them “antisemitic” and “absurd.”
The court said that Netanyahu and Gallant hold criminal responsibility for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib also responded to arrest warrants with the following statement:
“The International Criminal Court’s long overdue decision to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity signals that the days of the Israeli apartheid government operating with impunity are ending. Since this genocide began, the United States has provided more than $18 billion in weapons to the Israeli government. The Biden Administration can no longer deny that those same US weapons have been used in countless war crimes. Those American officials facilitating this genocide can no longer deny that their Israeli counterparts have used starvation as a weapon of war against a captive civilian population. Our government must urgently end our complicity in these violations of human rights and international law. We must stop arming and funding this genocide and end all weapons shipments to the Israeli apartheid regime now. Today’s historic arrest warrants cannot bring back the dead and displaced, but they are a major step towards holding war criminals accountable. Netanyahu and Gallant must be arrested and brought before the ICC.”
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, MI-12
The ICC was established in 2002 and prosecutes war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity when the member states can’t or won’t do so themselves.
The member states are requested to cooperate with the warrants, but the ICC doesn’t have police of its own to make the arrests.
So, while the arrest warrants don’t guarantee that Netanyahu or Gallant will be arrested, it could put them at risk and limit their travel within the 124 member states.
The U.S. isn’t a member of the ICC and neither is Israel.
