New Delhi:

Denouncing the International Criminal Court (ICC), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened the court’s arrest warrant against him to the infamous Dreyfus trial of 1894.  The Dreyfus trial, which began in 1894, involved a Jewish French army officer falsely accused of treason based on fabricated evidence. 

The ICC’s move accuses Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant of war crimes in the ongoing Gaza conflict, a decision Netanyahu lambasted as “anti-Semitic” and reflective of a “modern-day Dreyfus trial.”

“The anti-Semitic decision of the International Criminal Court is comparable to a modern-day Dreyfus trial – and it will end in the same way,” Netanyahu declared, referring to the wrongful conviction of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army officer, in a landmark case that exposed deep anti-Semitism in late 19th-century France.

The Dreyfus Affair was one of the most controversial legal scandals of 19th-century France, marked by anti-Semitism and judicial corruption. Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish army captain, was wrongfully convicted of treason in 1894 based on fabricated evidence. Stripped of his rank in a humiliating public ceremony and exiled to Devil’s Island, a former penal colony in french Guayana, Dreyfus’s plight became a symbol of systemic injustice and anti-Semitism.

French authorities accused Dreyfus of leaking military secrets based on a scrap of handwriting vaguely resembling his own. The trial, fueled by rampant anti-Semitism, resulted in a conviction despite evidence pointing to another officer, Ferdinand Esterhazy, as the true culprit. The case divided France, with prominent intellectuals like Émile Zola denouncing the injustice in his famous open letter, J’accuse…!

The ICC has issued warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza following Hamas’s brutal October 7 attacks on Israel. These attacks, which left over 1,400 Israelis dead and led to the kidnapping of hundreds, triggered a massive Israeli military response, resulting in immense loss of life and devastation in Gaza. The warrants mark the first time an Israeli head of state has been targeted by the court.

Netanyahu rejected the ICC’s actions as “absurd and false,” accusing Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan of corruption and alleging the decision was an attempt to distract from accusations of sexual harassment against Khan – charges Khan has denied. Israeli President Isaac Herzog described the ICC’s move as a “dark day for justice,” while Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the court had “lost all legitimacy.”

Human rights group B’Tselem, however, welcomed the ICC’s actions, urging international enforcement of the warrants. The group called the warrants “a critical step toward accountability for leaders responsible for crimes committed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”