Germany’s next expected Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can visit Germany despite an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
During a press briefing on Monday, after his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party won national elections, Merz said he informed Netanyahu during the congratulatory phone call that the two leaders should meet after the formation of the new government in Germany.
“If he [Netanyahu] plans to visit Germany, I have promised myself that we will find a way to ensure that he can visit Germany and leave again without arrest,” Merz said from Berlin.
“I think it’s a really absurd idea that an Israeli prime minister can’t visit the Federal Republic of Germany. He will be able to visit Germany,” he added.
In a previous statement, Netanyahu’s office said Merz had invited the Israeli prime minister “to make an official state visit to the country in defiance of the disreputable International Criminal Court’s decision to label Netanyahu a war criminal.”
In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and several Hamas commanders, including Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Both Deif and Yahya Sinwar were killed in the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
The ICC, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands, responded to Herz’s remarks on Monday, saying that states have a legal obligation to enforce its decisions.
Any concerns countries may have should be addressed with the court in a timely and efficient manner, the court added.
The ICC, in its strongly worded statement, said, “It is not for states to unilaterally determine the soundness of the court’s legal decisions.”
There are “reasonable grounds” to believe that Gallant and Netanyahu “intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity,” the ICC said in its November decision.
The Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, includes 124 state parties across six continents.
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Under the statute, countries that are part of the ICC are legally bound to enforce its arrest warrants, international human rights lawyer Jonathan Kuttab told reporters after the warrants were issued last year.
“The law operates based on a presumption that people will obey it. That’s how all laws are created,” Kuttab said. “You expect everybody to respect the law. Those who don’t respect the law are themselves violating the law.”
Germany has been both a staunch ally of Israel and a strong backer of the ICC.
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