Turkey issues arrest warrant for Netanyahu

This is after the International Criminal Court issued one for Netanyahu last year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 36 other Israelis, have been named in arrest warrants issued by Turkey for genocide.

Netanyahu might have known something was coming after 77 countries walked out on his speech at the United Nations in September.

At the end of November, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli Defense Minister. Donald Trump was furious and sanctioned the judges on the court. Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the arrest warrants courageous. “We support the arrest warrant. We consider it important that this courageous decision be carried out by all country members of the Accord to renew the trust of humanity in the international system.” At the time, 44,000 Palestinians had been killed. The total now reads 68,000.

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s office issued the arrest warrants. Turkey’s problem with Israel goes way back. In 2010 there was an aid flotilla that tried to bring in food and aid to Gaza and eight Turkish nationals and one Turkish American were killed by the Israelis. They never forgot that.

The warrants are for war crimes and genocide. Besides Netanyahu, also listed are Defense Minister Israel Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Erdoğan is a supporter of Hamas and frequently compares Netanyahu to Hitler.

Istanbul Bar Association Chair Yasin Şamli said specifically, “Today we have filed a complaint over the killing of 5-year-old Hind Rajab, the bombing of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, and the crimes committed against the Global Samud Flotilla.” My last article on the Global Sumud Flotilla was on Oct. 2nd. Hind Rajab was determined to have been hit by 335 bullets. I have no idea how a forensic pathologist could have figured that out. At that point, there wouldn't have been much left of the body.

Emphasizing that Israel continues its crimes despite the rulings of the UN, the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice. Şamil underlined that under Turkish law, genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes are within the jurisdiction of Turkish courts and carry no statute of limitations.

There has been no comment yet by Trump, Pete Hegseth, or Marco Rubio. The International Criminal Court has no police arm, but the countries that signed onto the Rome Statute that created the court in 2002 are obligated to arrest those under warrant if they travel to their country. Vladimir Putin did not travel to the BRICS summit in South Africa in 2023, because South Africa is a signatory to the Rome Statute and also had an ICC arrest warrant issued for him. In April of this year, Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, and Viktor Orbán announced his intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute because of the ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Here's a list of 124 countries that are obligated to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if they travel to their country. Turkey can have no expectations for countries to arrest Netanyahu or the other 36 Israelis. It's simply a political statement by Turkey about the continuing death toll in Gaza. Seeing how Erdoğan made a public statement after the ICC arrest warrants were issued, he will likely make a statement about the Turkish arrest warrants soon.