‘This is just who we are’: Trudeau says Canada would arrest Netanyahu

Dave Gordon

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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at the 2023 North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City, Jan. 10, 2023. Credit: Sydney Phoenix/U.S. Department of Defense.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, said during a press conference on Thursday that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the premier arrived on Canadian soil, in line with a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.

“First of all, as Canada has always said, it’s really important that everyone abide by international law,” Trudeau said. “This is something we’ve been calling on from the beginning of the conflict. We are one of the founding members of the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.”

Both the ICC and the ICJ are located in The Hague, although the court of justice is a United Nations body and the criminal court is a stand-alone body. The International Criminal Court issued warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defense minister, among others.

“We stand up for international law, and we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts,” Trudeau added. “This is just who we are as Canadians.”

Netanyahu has called the court’s decision a “modern Dreyfus trial,” while U.S. President Joe Biden recycled a six-month-old statement, in which he referred to the court’s decision as “outrageous.”

Leo Housakos, a Quebec senator, wrote that Trudeau’s were “disgraceful comments” that suggested that “Canadian authorities would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

“This ill-considered endorsement of the ICC’s politically motivated actions is a slap in the face to our ally and to every innocent Israeli still being held hostage,” Housakos stated. “We stand with the people of Israel and support their right to self-defense against terrorism. The actions taken by both the ICC and Justin Trudeau should be condemned as a dangerous precedent that threatens global stability and the principles of international law.”

“I have to say that we’re horrified, but not shocked,” Michael Teper, a board member of Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, told JNS of Trudeau’s comments.

“The statement is sadly highly predictable and indicative of the overall attitudes of the government of Canada these days,” Teper said. “It’s really just sad that Mr. Trudeau is taking this approach.”

Earlier in the day, Anthony Housefather, Canadian special advisor on Jewish community relations and antisemitism, wrote that “Israel was attacked by terrorists on Oct 7. The warrant issued by the ICC today against Netanyahu and Gallant claims their crimes started as early as Oct. 8. A day Israel was in shock, grief and mourning. The ICC discredits itself by its actions today.”

Amir Epstein, director of Tafsik, an Israel advocacy group with affiliates in Toronto and Winnipeg, told JNS that “the idea that Canada is aligned with Islamofascist countries that dictate what the ICC, the ICJ and the United Nations say and do is no longer surprising to anyone.”

He noted that dictators are able to “come freely into Canada,” which “is both laughable and embarrassing at the same time.”

The Abraham Global Peace Initiative in Toronto stated that it “expresses its strongest condemnation” of the court’s “reckless and politically motivated” action.

“The decision underscores the ICC’s troubling trend of weaponization against Israel, prepared by the Palestinian Authority and its allies since 2015,” the group said. “The ICC’s arrest warrants dangerously distort international justice by empowering extremists, exacerbating global antisemitism and undermining peace efforts during a time of heightened tensions.”

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