Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) of attacking democracies and called for sanctions to be imposed on it, the Jerusalem Post reported.

According to the Israeli newspaper, Netanyahu was speaking to the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) when he said that “everyone should rise up against” the ICC’s decision to investigate Israeli crimes.

He appealed for authorities “to ask for concrete actions: sanctions against the international court, its officials, its prosecutors, everyone.”

Netanyahu praised the US government and said that under the current President Donald Trump’s leadership, the US Administration had “spoken forcefully against the ICC”.

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He went on to accuse the court of launching “a full-frontal attack on democracies,” claiming that the ICC prevents democracies’ rights to defend themselves, including “Israel’s right – the Jewish people’s right – to live in its ancestral homeland, the Land of Israel.”

Meanwhile, Israeli newspaper Haaretz said yesterday that Netanyahu is planning to concentrate on the issue of the ICC during his meeting with world leaders who are attending the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem.

In December, the Public Prosecutor of the ICC announced her plan to investigate possible Israeli war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

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